Staff agitation: PU under locks for a week, exams cancelled

PATNA: Bihar's premier Patna University (PU), located in the state capital, where both the chancellor's secretariat and department of education function from, is under locks for over a week, and all exams have been cancelled due to the ongoing indefinite strike by the varsity employees' association in support of their demands.

- Arun Kumar

Losers are the students who were set to take their semester exams from December 5 when the strike started. But more than the strike, not unusual in the election year, what has come as a surprise is that the institutions were put under locks, and the university authorities could not get them removed or broken to ensure smooth exams, as college staff and teachers are not on strike.

The Wednesday's talks between the university authorities and the association leaders at scheduled 2 p.m., which was fixed on Tuesday, could not take place, as they did not turn up. The appeal of the university to the employees to return to work on Monday has also remained unheeded. The university had, through a communique on December 7, cancelled all exams till further orders.

"All the university officials were waiting for the meeting at the scheduled time, but the employees' representatives did not turn up till 4 p.m. They have informed the registrar that they will not attend today's meeting," said dean, Students' Welfare, Anil Kumar.

On Tuesday, all the principals, heads of departments and varsity officials held a meeting under vice-chancellor Ajay Kumar Singh to discuss the situation and decided to invite association leaders again for talks to resolve the issue.