Black badge protest at Ramjas

Teachers unhappy with infrastructure woes

Black badge protest at Ramjas

Teachers unhappy with infrastructure woes

Struggling with poor infrastructure and administrative discord, teachers of Ramjas College have now started a black campaign to bring to light their long-pending problems. The teachers' association of the college, in a meeting held on Tuesday, made a unanimous decision to protest against the college authorities in a peaceful manner.

As per the decision, all teachers wore black badges to classes and will continue to do so till the staff council agrees to listen to their demands. The major problems as put forward by the teachers involve non-functional infrastructure, misuse of college funds and non-appointment of the required number of teachers.

Professor S K Jha, department of statistics and president of the Staff Teachers Association, said, "Ramjas is the only college in our knowledge to not have appointed a single permanent teacher for the last six years. This is just not acceptable".

According to teachers, Rs 13 crore was allocated to the college for infrastructure development, including new laboratories and a separate block to conduct science classes, whic has not been spent. "This is an awareness campaign to inform students about the poor condition of the college and involve their support. We, however, did not want to go on a strike as it will disturb the classes. Therefore, we are protesting in a silent manner," said a teacher, wishing anonymity.

"One can imagine a condition where in a classroom with a capacity of 30 students, 150 are sitting. There is no transparency in the affairs of the college. We have requested the principal innumerable times but he has just ignored it as a non-issue," added Jha. Dr Rajendra Prasad, principal, Ramjas College was not available for comments.