Tribhuvan University (TU) professors have announced to shut all 60 constituent colleges and four research centers across the country to pile pressure on the authorities to get their demands be fulfilled.

TU Professors´ Association (TUPA) has called for a three-day shut down of the colleges and research centers across the country beginning March 12.

The association is pressing their 17-point demands, including salary issues and objections to the newly adopted semester system.

Chairperson of TUPA Yogendra Narayan Badbadiya said that the semester system was being implemented without any preparations and that it would not be productive for the students. The protesters are also demanding that the university provide the teachers their increased salary and facilities from the beginning of the current fiscal year.

The professors have blamed the TU authority of ignoring their demands, which compelled them to agitate. The TUPA has also stressed on giving permanent status to 1,380 temporary teachers hired since 2006 and shifting the TU provident fund to the Employees´ Provident Fund.

However, the TU Registrar Chandra Mani Poudel told Republica that high-level officials of the university met with Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and informed him about the technical procedure that was causing the delay in providing increased salary and other facilities to the professors.

Poudel added that Minister for Education Chitra Lekha Yadav was also recently informed about the delay. The University Grant Commission (UGC), which is responsible to allocate most of the expenditure of the TU, has delayed to send the university the increased amount, he added.

“The UGC has been headless after Ganesh Man Gurung completed his tenure, which has delayed the entire process. We have requested the government to fill the post soon,” Poudel said.

Concluding their first phase protest of picketing the TU VC, Rector and Registrar´s office for more than a month on Friday, the professors began a three-day relay hunger strike on Sunday.

source: republica,9 march 2014