Salaries credited, Madras University staff withdraw strike

CHENNAI: The indefinite strike called by the faculty members and administrative staff of University of Madras on Friday has been withdrawn after their salaries were credited to their bank accounts. After the State government’s initiative, the bank also de-freezed various accounts of the university.

The staff had been protesting for the last 3 weeks in various forms demanding the institution to resolve issues including the immediate disbursement of pending salaries and retirement benefits, even as student’s studies were affected due to the ongoing problem.

Amid the severe financial crisis faced by the university, the institution could not pay about Rs 420 crore as IT from 2017 to 2021. Due to this, its bank account was sealed by the IT department recently. The staff also claimed that electricity bills of the university could not be paid on time.

S Balakrishnan, head of the University of Madras Staff Protest Forum, told DT Next that the protest would have not been initiated if the issues were solved earlier. “For the last 20 days, there was no response either from the State government or from the management whether we would get our salaries. This protest was temporarily withdrawn only after our salaries credited,” he added.

However, he warned that the protest would continue if disbursing pension benefits, providing salaries to temporary and security personnel were delayed. “The annual grants for the university from the State government has been pending for a long time. Authorities should ensure that the salary issue is resolved permanently. We’ll announce our next step if all our issues are not resolved in a stipulated time,” he stated.

Higher Education Minister RS Rajakannappan has assured that all the issues of the university will be solved after consulting with the Chief Minister. “We’ve formed a committee to identify the issues and would report to the government,” he said.