CHENNAI: The indefinite strike called by employees of the University of Madras on Friday morning was halted temporarily in the evening after the administration paid the salaries of the staff for February.
Members of the Joint Action Committee of Teaching and Non-teaching Staff associations of the university went on strike near the main gate of the Chepauk campus against the non-payment of salaries and to exert pressure on the state government to resolve the ongoing financial crisis of the varsity. Accordingly, the members started their protest, condemning the state government for ignoring the plight of the university.
However, by afternoon, the administration of the university managed to get its bank accounts de-freezed after necessary deliberations with the chief commissioner of Income tax, Chennai, and by evening, it credited the salaries of the permanent employees.
“As we received our salaries, we decided to halt the strike for the time being, as one of our demands have been fulfilled. However, the joint action committee will meet again on Monday to decide further course of action as the problem is not solved fully,” said PK Abdul Rahiman, secretary of the Teachers’ Collective forum of the university.
The committee members wondered from where the university will manage to pay their salaries from next month.
“Today, only the salaries of permanent employees were paid. The contract employees are still waiting for their payment. On Monday, we will discuss with the administration about the measures being taken. We are told that the university has not paid salaries from the corpus fund and that they paid it from defreezed bank accounts. If we are not satisfied with their response, then we will strike again,” said a member of the committee.
The teachers had alleged that citing audit objections, the government has not been providing grants properly to the university since 2017. "While the audit objections are related to only 5% to 10% of the funds, the state government has reduced funding by almost 75%," said a professor.
The Madras University has been unable to pay salaries to its staff after Government of India's Income Tax department froze over 50 bank accounts of the university for not paying pending dues.
The Income Tax department froze the accounts after demanding Rs 424 crore as dues dating as far back as 2017. The notices were issued after the Income Tax Department reclassified Madras University as a private university, pointing out that it does not get at least 51% of its funding from the government.
Meanwhile, the university administration through its registrar has managed to file an appeal against the income tax notices demanding Rs 424 crore tax from the institution. “We have hired a new auditor and we have filed an appeal against the notice,” said an official of the university. Notably, the varsity until now did not have a full-time auditor.
The administration said by Monday they will be able to pay the contract employees also as their salaries are paid through cheques and not credited in bank accounts.
Over 800 permanent and contractual employees including faculty members, administrative staff, guest lecturers, housekeeping staff and security guards participated in the strike. In a circular issued on Thursday, the university registrar had asked all the teaching and administrative staff to not indulge in any type of protest inside the campus.
The staff strike had disrupted classes for the students. "We sat in the classrooms for three hours, waiting for our teachers, but none turned up," said S Sabari, a postgraduate student.
