The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Being penalised for protesting against JNU administration'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 24, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

`Being penalised for protesting against JNU administration'

Staff Reporter

Administration blatantly violating labour laws: JNUSU

NEW DELHI: Opposing suspension of ten students and Jawaharlal Nehru University Staff Association office-bearers, the JNU Students' Union on Friday alleged that the administration was making undemocratic attempts to stop the movement for workers' rights on the campus.

The JNUSU claimed that the administration was "blatantly violating" labour laws and norms and was trying to discredit the students' and workers' union for raising their voices against the authorities.

"The reason for JNU administration's unprecedented suspensions of students and non-teaching staff is clear. They want to stop us from further agitating to expose the corruption in the administration. They want to send a clear message that if we continue to fight for the cause of workers we shall be punished," said JNUSU vice-president Tyler Walker Williams.

The JNUSU on Friday circulated an agreement signed by the Dean of Students and a private limited company (licensee) in 2006 for the services of six trained cooks, 12 helpers and three supervisors for the mess of Lohit Hostel on the campus.

"As per JNU's agreement with private agencies, a helper will get Rs. 2,900 per month while, according to the Minimum Wage Law, an unskilled worker should get Rs. 3,949.40. However, the actual payment that he received was much less at Rs. 2,100. It is the same for Mahi and Mandavi hostels. Such gross circumventions have been going on for long," said Tyler.

In addition to scrapping of illegal contracts for mess workers and safai karamcharis, JNUSU has also been demanding reinstatement of 15 electrical workers who were retrenched last October after having worked on a daily-wage basis for many years. They also want the administration's labour contracts to be made public.

The students were pressing for guarantee of minimum wages and rights for all those working on the campus on Monday when they allegedly gheraoed Registrar Avais Ahmad.

Two students have been on an indefinite hunger strike for the past four days.

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