In protest against the revised notification of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) on service and pay norms, faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) observed a one-day fast on Thursday.

Even as more than 80 per cent of the faculty members turned up at the auditorium to participate in the protest, they took classes and participated in research projects as normal.

After the fast ended at 5 pm, the members of IIT-K Faculty Forum held a general body meeting to discuss the issue at length.

Professor K R Gurunath of the Chemistry department termed the reaction of HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to their protest as the “reaction of a person who is not aware about the long-term ramification of the revised notification.”

On September 19, said Professor Gurunath, IIT-K had given its detailed reaction to the MHRD’s revised notification through an open letter.

“After the meeting of All India IIT Faculty Federation at Salt Lake city, another open letter was issued on September 23, in which we expressed our resentment against Sibal’s statements,” said Gurunath.

Convener of IIT-K faculty forum, Rajeev Shekhar, said, “Due to the poor salary structure, the IITs are finding it hard to recruit fresh and bright PhDs.”

Plans are afoot to open eight new IITs, but the package to attract PhDs is extremely poor. The revised circular of MHRD is likely to prove a major stumbling block in the recruitment of quality staff in all the IITs, said Shekhar.

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