The local leaders of a trade union at Kalamassery allegedly charged an exorbitant `80,000 from Cusat authorities on Saturday for shifting about 40,000 books from its library to a newly -constructed building.
However, when the district-level leaders intervened, the rate was brought down to `35,000, according to both the parties.
K N Gopinath, the CITU district secretary, clarified that there is nothing wrong in the deal and the rates quoted were lesser than what was approved by the government.
“Our old library has been closed for more than a week, on account of shifting to the new building. G Madhu, the principal, had discussed the issue with the local union leaders and they had agreed to shift the books for `26,000. But the union members demanded an exorbitant rate of `80,000, which was not acceptable to the management,” A Ramachandran, Registrar, Cusat, told ‘Express’.
CITU district secretary said that book shifting is not an easy task as people imagine and denied that the workers were unreasonable in their demands.
“The workers have to load it from the third floor of the old building and offload it at the first floor of another building, which is situated a kilometer away,” he said.
“The local leaders had asked the management to find their own options, as they kept changing their demands. At first they said that they do not need packing, but later they demanded packing. We have discussed the issue and it has been solved,” he said.
The registrar said that the workers do not need to carry the boxes manually, as Cusat would arrange college buses to transfer the books from the old library to the new building.