Teaching and non-teaching staff protest ‘autocratic attitude’ of tech varsity admn

Members of teaching and non-teaching employee unions at Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University for Science and Technology (DCRUST), Murthal, jointly went on strike for one day on Wednesday against the “autocratic attitude” of the university administration.

The members of Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University Teachers’ Association (DCRUTA) and Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University Employees Union (DCRUEU) jointly suspended work at the university and staged a protest against the university administration at the Vice-Chancellor’s office. They raised slogans against the university administration.

The protesting union members alleged that the university administration had appointed executive council (EC) members by violating the constitution. They further alleged manipulation at the EC meeting minutes by the university administration and also demanded the online recording and CCTV footage of the EC meeting be kept in safe custody.

The protesting members alleged that the implementation of the national education policy (NEP) 2020 was only in the documents while the students and teachers were away from it at the ground level.

DCRUTA president Dr Ajay Dabas and DCRUEU president Anand Kumar alleged that no new books were purchased for the university library and there was no Internet connectivity and even the anti-plagiarism software was not provided to the research scholars due to which the students and research-scholars were facing problems since the last two years.

The protesting employees also condemned the decision for constitution of an inquiry committee against the presidents of DCRUTA and DCRUEU without any solid reasons and evidence against them.

Lifts in the academic block of the university were lying shut for many years and the roads in the university were badly damaged for the last many years, but no action was initiated to resolve these genuine problems of the students and employees at the university, they alleged.

Promotions of the staff members were lying pending for the last many years due to which the employees were upset, they said.

The protesting associations demanded that the EC members should be appointed as per the university rules, NEP should be implemented with immediate effect, promotions should be done on priority basis, new books be purchased for the university library, I-cards of the first year students be issued at the earliest, lifts should be maintained, roads should be repaired on priority and the inquiry against the union presidents should be shut with immediate effect.

The members of the university administration also warned that if their demands were not fulfilled the protest would be intensified.

Haryana Tribune