BHUBANESWAR: The staff of Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) operating in collaboration with National Institute of Social Work and Social Sciences (NISWASS), an NGO in Capital City, have alleged that they have not been paid salary for the last two months nor allowed to join duty since Saturday.
As many as 17 employees, who were recruited for EMRC by NISWASS in 2011, have also alleged that for the last two years, they were working with a consolidated salary which was 50 per cent of their original pay package with no other benefits as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms. In a written plea, the employees have urged the UGC and Consortium for Educational Communication authorities to take control of the EMRC unit here.
All 22 units of EMRC in India are administered by State or Central universities except at Kolkata where it is controlled by the administration of St Xaviers College.
While all these units follow the Central Government guidelines with regard to salary, perks, weekly offs and other facilities for their staff, NISWASS in Odisha has flouted all norms.
“On arriving at the office on January 19, we found that all the equipment, computers, video cameras and even our personal belongings were removed from the premises,” a professional assistant of EMRC, Sunil Kumar Biswal, said. The employees have registered a complaint at Chandrasekharpur police station in this connection.
On the other hand, repeated attempts by this paper to contact the authorities of NISWASS proved futile.