JNU: Main gate locked by security guards demanding salaries; students support them

Hundreds of security guards working at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus held a strike yesterday, December 15, night, demanding their unpaid salaries. The main gate was locked in protest and students were also seen to turn out in support of the guards.

The guards, hired from the Cyclops Security and Allied Services, claimed that they have not received their salaries for the last three months. They are all contractual workers. The JNU Unit of the All India Students' Association (AISA) claims that more than 250 guards were affected. "Complete financial collapse in JNU. Extreme levels of mismanagement," is how N Sai Balaji, the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) President describes the situation.

On the other hand, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in a press release today, December 16, has blamed the JNU for its incompetency. ABVP points out that other contractual workers are also facing similar problems. "Earlier, the Sanitation workers of JNU were also not getting their salary... Despite the fact that JNUadministration has funds to repair the House of Vice Chancellor and to give salaries to their topmost authorities, they do not have funds to give scholarships to the students, or salaries to the staff and sanitation workers," a part of the press release reads.

The guards have called off their strike at present, after the JNU administration assured them of two months' salaries, informs Madhurima Kundu, JNU AISA Secretary. "However, the assurance is oral and no official document in this regard has been released yet," she adds. Meanwhile, "ABVP-JNU demands all the concerned authorities to immediately release the salary of guards and all the working staff and the sanitation workers. Otherwise, the administration will once again face a massive protest," ABVP states.