Four YCMOU employees in hosp; 1 critical

Nashik: The hunger strike launched by 17 staffers of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), demanding permanent status to their employment, has entered the sixth day on Sunday. While some employees were hospitalised, the university administration has appealed to the employees to call off the stir and cooperate with the legal process initiated by the university to consider their demands.
On Friday, three of the agitating staffers were admitted to the civil hospital after their health condition deteriorated. Two of them came back and resumed hunger strike on Saturday. One employee, identified as Shekhar Jagtap, is in the ICU and his condition is critical. On Sunday, Ujjawal Dumbare, Vaishali Gadbail and Yogesh Nimse were admitted to the hospital. Their health was stable but they are under observation, sources said.
"We have been cheated. The administration had given a written assurance of awarding permanent status to us in a correspondence issued on April 9. More than 35 days have passed since then, but the management has not taken any positive step," said Prashant Bhadangale, one of the 17 agitating employees.
"We will continue the strike till the administration takes some strong step towards making as permanent staffers. It is gross injustice to us that the university is avoiding the state government's orders issued from 2014 to 2016," said Dilip Thorat, a staffer.
Earlier, the employees had launched a hunger strike from March 28 in front of the university headquarters at Gangapur. The strike was called off on April 9 when registrar Prakash Atkare had issued a written assurance of positive decision on their demand. However, the management council decided to consult with a retired judge of the high court before taking a final decision. Calling this a 'time-killing activity' of the university, the employees decided to restart their strike.
"We have filed an application seeking information about the retired judge with whom the university is going to discuss our issue. But, it did not provide the information," said Thorat.
Registrar Atkare is presently on leave and his tenure is about to end within two months. Vice-Chancellor Manikrao Salunkhe is also out of Nashik for official reasons.
YCMOU's in-charge registrar Pandit Gavli said the university administration is in touch with the agitating employees and has appealed to them to call off the strike as the process of seeking legal advice on their issue is under way. "The management council will take a positive decision within a month after receiving the legal advice," he said.
The agitating employees, however, reiterated that it's a time-killing exercise of the university and resolved to continue the strike. They also mentioned that the university administration will be responsible if any untoward incident takes place during the hunger strike.