Bhubaneswar, Oct. 18: The lawn outside the vice-chancellor’s office is carpeted with dead leaves and sundry rubbish. It has not been swept for the past four days.
The impact of the agitation launched by Class IV employees of Utkal University, the state’s premier varsity, is visible everywhere on the sprawling campus. The indefinite strike entered into its fifth day today.
The students, moving around the administrative block, wear an anxious look on their faces.
Most of them, seeking college-leaving certificates and such other documents, had to make several rounds of the place in the past four days without any success.
The students and the teachers are bearing brunt of the strike that has paralysed the varsity’s official work. “I wanted my college leaving-certificate urgently to take admissions in another university. But, there was no one to issue the challan,” said Nupur Pattanaik, a postgraduate in sociology.
Nearly 100 employees from almost every section of the university are on strike in front of the vice-chancellor’s office.
Now, there are fewer people to deliver important notices from the PG Council chairman’s office to each of the 27 departments.
“The notice for a debate competition was delivered very late at our department and as a result we could not participate in it. Even power cuts have become unbearably longer.
“Earlier, power used to be restored within minutes, but now, it is taking hours. Everything is in a mess,” said Sangram Keshari Patra, a law student.
“We all are suffering either directly or indirectly. Many students, who want to apply for scholarships or have queries regarding application forms for the national eligibility test (Net), have no one to turn to,” said Tanmay Swain, president of the students’ union.
The striking staff are demanding regularisation of jobs and higher salary.
“I have served in this university for the past 25 years as a daily wage earner. I am paid Rs 113 a day, excluding Sundays. I am struggling to make ends meet,” said Anil Kumar Patra, watchman of the women’s studies department.
“The universities at Berhampur and Sambalpur have regularised their Class IV employees. Despite a high court order in our favour, the authorities have ignored our pleas. They are saying they will give us a hike of Rs 10 a day. Is this a joke? Most of the regular non-teaching staff are old and on the verge of retirement,” said Abhimanyu Chand, a peon of the botany department.
Vice-chancellor P.K. Sahu said the university could not regularise the staff without the state government’s order. A senior officer said: “We sympathise with them. However, our hands are tied. Official work has been affected, but we are managing with the regular employees.”
