Over 100 employees, including teaching faculty members, from government colleges of Tiruchi and Thanjavur, which were previously constituent colleges of the Bharathidasan University, picketed the Vice-Chancellor’s office on Thursday demanding disbursement of salary dues pending for five months.
The protest was withdrawn after the university Registrar assured action within the next couple of weeks.
The protesters alleged that the university and the State government were unsympathetic towards them as both were unwilling to bear the financial burden, leaving them with no salary since November 2023.
M.S. Bala Murugan, president of the Association of University Teachers, said the university should pay them the revised salaries with pending arrears.
Pointing to the peculiarity of the problem Mr. Bala Murgan said: ‘’Under the Bharathidasan University, 10 colleges that were constituent colleges since 2006 became government colleges from 2019 following a Government Order. However, the issue of who will pay salaries to the guest lecturers, hourly based teachers and non-teaching staff remains unresolved till date. The university paid the salaries till last November 2023 after which it took a stand that only the government should pay the salaries as the university was facing a financial crunch. This situation is the same for other universities in the State,” he said.
R. Kalidasan, Registrar (In-charge) of the university, told The Hindu that the university had to incur a substantial expenditure by paying salaries of the staff of the constituent colleges. “We are expecting reimbursement from the government. Principal Secretary A. Karthik sent a letter on January 7 to universities that faced similar problems advising them not to stop giving the salaries until the issue is resolved. But from our university we have replied that our financial situation is in a bad state. In the coming week, we will communicate to the government again and take efforts to resolve the issue.”
