IITs’ faculty threaten to go on mass hunger strike

Close to 1,500 faculty members across the IITs has threatened to go on mass hunger strike if the government does not revise the new pay regime by September 4.

Close to 1,500 faculty members across the IITs has threatened to go on mass hunger strike if the government does not revise the new pay regime by September 4.

HT Image

The move comes a day after the All IIT Faculty Federation submitted a memorandum to the Human Resource Devel-opment (HRD) Ministry, and asked the ministry to act by September 4 or the faculty would be forced to take “drastic steps” on September 5 —teacher’s day.

Terming the government’s notification as “a move by the Indian bureaucracy to show their superiority over us”, around 400 IIT Delhi teachers took mass casual leave on Tuesday. Faculty of IIT Madras, Kharagpur and Bombay has already boycotted classes over the last few days.

Notably, sources at the HRD Ministry have hinted that the “demands were unfair” and no changes would be made in current pay regime.

On Friday, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had said, “I cannot promise anything but we will definitely look into the matter.”

This is in contrast to the proposed Brain Gain policy —which the HRD Ministry is mulling over — in order to attract talent from abroad.

Teachers also felt that the current pay regime was not enough to compete with multi nationals and government firms, which paid as much as Rs 12 to 18 lakh per annum.