Lecturers of Madurai Kamaraj University staged a hunger-strike protest on the university campus here on Wednesday to press their demand to disburse two months pending salary.
Protesters said, though they had continuously protested in their non-working hours from September 5, 2024, the hunger-strike was to observe Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence on his birth anniversary.
Recently, the salary for July month was provided to all the staff of the university— both teaching and non-teaching staff — but still running a family without a single penny for two months was utterly exploitative, they added.
However, they said they were aware of the difficulties faced by the university to generate revenue as it did two decades ago, but, it was the duty of the government to provide an alternative for the smooth functioning of the university.
A senior professor said, if it was going to continue in the upcoming months, then the teaching was going to be affected very badly.
“Already, the prospect of research scholars and research at the university has become a big question mark. The university was known for its excellence in research but the performance of research has badly fallen,” the professor added.
“The fear now is what if it affects the education of other students too. When the basic education is not given properly to postgraduate student, their prospect in research or any other job is going to be a question mark,” he noted.
When the issue of pending salary was going to be seen only from the teachers’ perspective it has no permanent solution, only when it was seen from an academic perspective, the government could arrive upon a solution to resurrect the institution, he said.
“The former university administrators failed to address the issue properly to take it to the notice of the State government, so the government also failed to notice the seriousness of the issue,” he added.
Published - October 02, 2024 08:14 pm IST
