An Associate Professor with the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) on Monday launched an indefinite hunger strike at the institute premises against alleged irregularities in the institute.
Professor C Lakshmanan claimed abuse of power by administrative authorities, injustice to staff, caste discrimination, and nepotism.
Lakshmanan told TNIE Online Desk that for the past three months he has been carrying out a struggle against the administration urging that they should not bring a bad reputation to the institute on its golden jubilee celebration year. Lakshmanan said he sent several emails to the authorities but to no avail. Hence, he has been forced to launch a hunger strike.
His demands include adherence to the rule of law and transparency in every sphere of the administration of the institute,
to put an end to the reign of injustice and treat all the staff fairly and equally. He demanded an explanation on the arbitrary non-extension of the contract of one Ashok Chandran during the peak of the Covid 19 pandemic. Lakshmanan insisted that assistant and associate professors be included in the Governing Council and restoration of the committee system for fair governance.
He further urged to make the holding of monthly faculty meetings mandatory following the norms established by the Institute Founder instead of leaving it to the discretion of the director, reconstitute the Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee, and constitute staff grievance redressal committee. Further, he demanded to initiate concrete plans for reconstructing the infrastructure of the institute and amend faculty rule to share the responsibility of the director on a rotation basis like Head of Department in a university.
On the discriminatory front, Lakshmanan said that a Dalit accountant who had put in service of nearly 10 to 15 years in the institute had applied for the post of finance officer. But she was overlooked and an outsider who was younger than her was appointed to the post making sure that the Dalit staff can never become the finance officer in her service period. "So out of anxiety she resigned the post and left the institute," Lakshmanan said.