IIT profs to go on fast today for better pay

MUMBAI: Faculty members across all Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) plan to go on hunger strike on Saturday to protest the HRD ministry's
failure to reexamine salaries
recommended by the sixth pay commission.

"We are extremely disappointed and hurt by the recently announced pay scales. IITs have long been regarded as pillars of excellence in higher education. Instead of giving recognition to this fact, the government has offered a pay package that is not helpful in filling the shortfall of faculty in IITs,'' said Kishore Chatterjee, joint secretary, IIT-Bombay faculty forum.

"Contrary to newspaper reports of September 3, there has been no satisfactory resolution to problems highlighted in our memorandum,'' added a statement by the faculty forum.

Faculty members fear that "unattractive'' scales may push out even existing staff "resulting in a dilution of the high standard that the IITs are maintaining today''. IIT teachers from across the country had submitted a memorandum regarding their minimum expectation to the ministry on August 23. "We had also mentioned that if the government did not come up with a new notification addressing concerns of IIT faculty by September 4, we would hold a daylong fast at the premise of IIT Bombay on the Teachers' Day, September 5.

Similarly, other IITs will also see their faculty members observe a hunger strike.