Pro-UDF unions protest against faculty recruitment

Members of a joint action committee of staff unions in Calicut University, affiliated to the United Democratic Front (UDF), on Wednesday took out a march to the administrative block in protest against the alleged violation of reservation norms and lack of efforts to clear backlog posts in the ongoing recruitment of faculty members for various departments.

The police stopped them at the entrance to the building, where they staged a dharna. Interview for recruitment is held at the administrative block.

Opening the protest, P. Abdul Hameed, MLA, said that the backward classes were being deprived of their constitutional benefits through the ongoing appointments. He claimed that people affiliated to the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) were being preferred for the posts. There had been widespread corruption too, Mr. Hameed alleged. Construction work worth crores of rupees was being handed over to Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society without the tender process. Student activists who staged protests against all these were being beaten up using the police, he said.

Meanwhile, activists of the Fraternity Movement also staged a sit-in outside the building from the morning till they were removed by the police in the afternoon. K.K. Ashraf, secretary, Fraternity Movement, opened the protest.