Protest against the Union HRD ministry’s order paring leave and granting only a minimal hike
IIT Madras research park
Chennai: Over 500 research scholars at IIT-Madras boycotted work and lab sessions on Friday in protest against the Union HRD ministry’s (MHRD) order of February 18, paring leave and granting only a minimal hike in the fellowship. They also held a lunch meeting to discuss a further course of action. Akhil Pratap Singh, a Ph.D student of chemistry and biotechnology, said that the MHRD’s memorandum, in response to research scholars across the country going on protest against the insufficient fellowship amount, had left this unchanged at Rs 25,000 for the four year duration of the Ph.D. (four years for engineering and five years for science).
“We (research scholars) want Rs 25,000 for the first two years and Rs 28,000 from the third year as per the department of science & technology’s circular. But the MHRD did not fulfill our demand,” he said.Akhil also alleged that research scholars had 30 days of leave every year, but now the HRD ministry’s memorandum had no mention of leave, but spoke about casual leave without any mention of the days.
Research scholars had also raised their concern about the period of implementation of the raise in the fellowship amount. Shravan Kumar, a research scholar, pointed out that according to the MHRD’s memorandum, the fellowship hike came into force from February 1, 2015, whereas the department of science & technology’s order had October 1, 2014, as the implementation date, which is what they wanted, and ‘arrears for the period, which the MHRD should implement immediately’, he said.
“We want October 1, 2014, as the implementation date and we want arrears for the period, which MHRD should implement it immediately,” he said. Research scholars have urged the government to rethink the memorandum and effect the necessary justice.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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