Shillong, Jan. 27: Nehu vice-chancellor Pramod Tandon today pleaded with the agitating employees to come for direct talks to put an end to the impasse in the region’s largest university.

In a statement, Tandon said he was open to holding dialogues with leaders of the teaching and non-teaching employees to bring back normality.

The crisis arose on December 10 when the executive council of the North Eastern Hill University (Nehu) decided to cancel the hills area special allowance, prompting howls of protest from Nehu staff.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of the university then formed a Joint Action Committee to protest against the decision from December 11.

The situation aggravated after Nehu conducted examinations on December 30 — a holiday on account of the death anniversary of Jaintia freedom fighter U Kiang Nangbah — which led to KSU volunteers barging into the examination halls to stop the test.

Under pressure from the agitating staff, the university’s executive council 8 on January decided to continue with the special allowance.

The employees, however, continued their agitation, demanding removal of Tandon for the present crisis.

“I appeal to you all to act proactively and constructively towards restoring normal functioning of the university as soon as possible, so that the ensuing university examinations and fate of thousands of students appearing in various undergraduate and other courses are not jeopardized,” Tandon stated.

He said the university’s administration was sensitive to the grievances of all the university’s stakeholders, students, teachers, non-teaching employees and society at large, who have great expectations from the institution.

Stating that the university was open and transparent about its conduct, Tandon urged the staff to contribute constructively for restoration of normality.

“I assure you that I shall strive to do my best in this process. The university is also putting up all relevant correspondence between the university, the ministry of human resource development, the University Grants Commission and the leaders of teaching and non-teaching employees on its website in the direction of openness and public information,” Tandon said.

He dubbed the past month’s events as unfortunate.

He reminded the staff that though Nehu enjoyed internal autonomy, in many respects government policies, rules and regulations were binding on it, particularly with respect to staff salaries, funds receipts and expenditure procedures governed under a central Act.

The university is fully accountable to Parliament and the Government of India, he added.