Pune’s Sinhgad case: Battle gets tougher for staffers
According to the petitioners, who had been protesting for over a year against the non-payment of salaries, as many as 275 staff had been terminated, while 100 were transferred to the other campuses including the Lonavla campus.
The petitioners from the Sinhgad institutes will reach out to the University Tribunal and Grievances on Tuesday. The faculty and non-teaching staff of nearly 100 institutes under Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES) will have to wait till July 2, which is the next hearing date, when the entire plan for reimbursements might be shared by the social welfare department(SWD).
“Although the court has not yet appropriated a concrete order to clear all the dues, it is considering to make a provision for the staffers to deposit ₹65 crore to clear off the salary dues. How and when will this be done is yet to be informed by the court,” said advocate Suresh S Pakale, representing the petitioners.
A total of ₹17.57 crore due is payable to Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES) for reimbursement of fees of reserved category students. A total of ₹65 crore salary due is payable to the 796 petitioners.
The condition of the staffers had been recently made more difficult by a sudden surge of mass termination and transfers. According to the petitioners, who had been protesting for over a year against the non-payment of salaries, as many as 275 staff had been terminated, while 100 were transferred to the other campuses including the Lonavla campus. Out of them, many were pregnant women. Many believe, this is the institution’s move to curtail the movement and discourage them from continuing the protest.
According to sources, almost five of these women are pregnant, and many were mothers of young children under the age of five years.
“We tried to bring this matter to the notice of the court, however, we were informed that the said matter does not come under their purview. We will have to take up this issue with the Pune University. We have been guided to reach out to the University Tribunal and Grievances and will do so on Tuesday. If the institute thinks that this would hold us down, they are wrong because we will keep fighting ,” said Rohan Musale, assistant professor at SKN Sinhgad Institute of Technology and Science (SKNSITS), Lonavla.