IIT -HUNGER STRIKE

In a rare protest action, around 1,500 faculty members including professors at the coveted 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.







Prof 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.