IIT faculty to go on hunger strike on Sep 24, no class disrupn

Kolkata/Ahmedabad, Sep 21 (PTI) In a rare protest action,
around 1,500 faculty members including professors at the
coveted Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) across the
country will go on a hunger strike on Thursday agitated over
"anomalies" in pay structure but there will be no disruption
in classes.

The decision putting the Faculty on a collision course
with the Government was taken at a meeting of its Federation
at IIT Kharagpur. The structure put restriction on promotions
and lacked performance-based incentives, the Federation said.

The action by the IITs came even as the IIM-Ahmedabad
Board decided to meet on September 25 to deal with the
situation arising out the faculty members rejecting the Union
HRD ministry's latest order on pay structure for Centrally
Funded Technical Institutions (CFTI).

The IIT Faculty Federation assured that classes at the 13
IITs will, however, not be affected during the strike. In all
there are 800 professors in the IITs.

"We will observe strike on September 24. But we will not
boycott work. The classes will go on. We will protest the
pay structure that puts a number of curbs on the IIT system,"
Prof M Thenmozhi, president of the federation, told PTI after
the meeting.

Thenmozhi said the federation will seek an appointment
with HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on the issue and submit a fresh
memorandum on their demands.

A faculty spokesperson said the pay-scales had been made
in a manner which would destroy the excellent status of the
institutes and not attract the best of talent in future.

The HRD Ministry had notified the pay structure for
Central Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs), including IITs
and IIMs, on August 18. However, the IIT faculty opposed
certain provisions, including 40 per cent cap on promotion of
professors to senior grade. PTI BKM
DEP


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