Imphal: Contractual employees and nonteaching staff of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Imphal on Friday began an indefinite pen-down strike and staged a sit-in in front of their’s administration block of the institute.
The protesters holding placards that read, “Regularize contractual employees,” Give us job security,” and “Don’t invite violence,” urged the central government to improve their service conditions at the earliest.
NIT Manipur started its first session on August 2, 2010, with three branches of Engineering – Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Communication and over the years it has produced many academicians now working in the government departments, Sagolsem Surjit, a supervisor, working as contractual staff in the NIT said.
For the past 12 years, with a handful of regular teaching staff assisted by about 50 contract employees with small fixed pay, the institute is working, S Surjit said.
On several occasions, the contractual staff urged the Director of the Institute and also the Board chairman Prof. Goutam Sutradhar to improve their service conditions but this has not yielded any results.
Since 2014, the authority has not filled up a single vacant post, he said. S Surjit threatened to intensify their agitation if the government does not fulfil their demands.