Ludhiana: PAU employees stage sit-in outside V-C office

As many as four employees’ unions, including the PAU Employees Union, PAU Teachers Association and PAU Class Four Workers Union, have been protesting on campus since October 13.

High drama took place at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) on Thursday as the employees’ union sat on protest outside vice-chancellor Baldev Singh Dhillon’s office and stopped him from entering, while seeking the fulfillment of their long-pending demands.

PAU employees sloganeering outside V-C office in Ludhiana on Thursday. (Harsimar Pal Singh/HT)

As the 73-year-old Dhillon requested the protesting employees to clear the passage, the employees bowed down to his feet and asked him step over them to pass. The V-C tried to pacify them but to no avail.

As many as four employees’ unions, including the PAU Employees Union, PAU Teachers Association and PAU Class Four Workers Union, have been protesting on campus since October 13.

Among their demands is the implementation of the old pension scheme, on the lines of Punjabi University, Patiala, for employees recruited till July 9, 2012. Besides, they also want the grade pay for library attendant and meteorological attendant to be at par with the lab attendant, promotions for JEs and SDOs, filling up of vacant posts of store-keepers, recruitment and promotion of car and jeep drivers and the problems cropping up in internal audit to be resolved.

Earlier V-C Dhillon had appealed to the protesting employees to work together in view of the pandemic and set an example for everyone by serving the community.