The Association of University Teachers (AUT) staged a protest on Saturday against the Pachaiyappa’s Trust Board’s alleged inaction on their career advancement scheme of the college faculty.
The association is also demanding police action against the persons, who pasted posters denigrating Chennai Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education R. Ravanan.
The association has been protesting for the past several days demanding that the Trust officials forward the documents of teachers for career advancement scheme to the Directorate of Collegiate Education.
Association president R. Tirunavukkarasu said the trust ran six arts and science colleges in the State was responsible for ensuring that the benefits of career advancement scheme reached 250 assistant professors under its aegis.
Despite several rounds of talks, the trust officials had not taken any action, he said. The association approached Mr. Ravanan, who issued a circular to the college secretary in this regard.
Mr. Tirunavukkarasu alleged that following the circular, a poster came up on the college campus and elsewhere demanding that the government take action against Mr. Ravanan. It sought the dismissal of 152 faculty, former officials of the University of Madras to which the colleges were affiliated and former members of the trust who had appointed the faculty.
Mr. Tirunavukkarasu said the CAS was implemented in colleges after 10 years of struggle. Yet the Trust Board was denying the benefits to the faculty. After repeated protests by the association, the Higher Education Secretary and the Director of Collegiate Education had asked Mr. Ravanan to issue a circular to the college. The AUT had been protesting for three days. As there was no response, it was forced to stage a protest near Valluvar Kottam on Saturday.
“When we demanded action against those responsible for the posters, the college principal hesitated. We want the college authorities to act with honesty and identify the person who put up the posters, failing which we will hold the college administration responsible for abetting the perpetrators,” Mr. Tiruvankkarasu added.
