Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 7: The ongoing protest demonstration of class-IV hired contractual employees of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Kakryal today entered into 17th day.
The agitating employees raised slogans against the Vice Chancellor and authorities sitting at the helm of affairs who are fuelling the agitation of University employees owing to vested interests.
The hired contractual employees are on agitational path for adequate compensation to family of their colleague Karnail Singh, who lost his life on campus on July 4. University authorities miserably failed in extending any relief to the family of deceased, who died on duty. There are around 250 class IV employees who are working on hire basis under a contractor.
The employees when approached the Vice Chancellor, the latter pleaded that employees working on hire basis were not responsibility of the University and they should approach the concerned contractor for seeking compensation. On the other hand, contractor initially agreed to pay meager sum of Rs 75000 but later he also refused to lend the help.
Pertinently, in 2009, another employee namely Sanjay Kumar was also died on campus and his family never got any compensation.
The agitating employees are also demanding that hiring of staff through contractor should be stopped and SMVDU may engage the staff on direct basis as per the University norms.
Meanwhile, Raj Kumar Bassan, president of SBEU and general secretary of SSH today made a call to hold dharna in Katra town on Thursday to highlight the plight of poor employees. He threatened to take this struggle to Raj Bhawan and Civil Secretariat if the demands are not met at an earliest.
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