CHENNAI: Around 100 students from DB Jain College in Thoraipakkam staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday after the management decided to terminate the services of two professors from the Commerce Department. Initially, the two professors sat outside the staff room in the morning and were soon joined by other staff and tens of students.
“All students are fond of the teachers. The college should not let them go. They have been terminating good faculty members unnecessarily. Students suffer because of this,” said a final-year student from the department, on condition of anonymity.
The two professors, who had demanded an increment and better treatment, alleged that the college management unfairly dismissed five more faculty members earlier this year. “Even after working for years, we still get a very low salary. When we asked for increment, they asked us to resign. They stated that we worked against the management,” said T Sivakumar, one of the two professors.
He added that the college asked them to tender an apology for working against the management. “I told them that I would sign an apology for asking for increment,” he rued.G Kothandaraman, the other professor who was fired, said that the college charged exorbitant fees from students even though it was government-aided. “Students pay nearly `30,000 each year. Whenever we take up these issues with the management, they threaten to dismiss us,” he said.
M Sakthivel Murugan, vice-principal of the college, said that the teachers were fired as they instigated students to protest and added, “the management has any right to terminate at any point of time giving one month’s salary.” He said that the management would officially issue the termination orders to both staff soon.