U’grads in protest today

September 16, 2012, 8:51 pm 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island

Undergraduates will launch a fresh protest today (17) demanding that the government solve problems in the university sector immediately.

Convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation, the organizing body of the protest, Sanjeewa Bandara told The Island that they would begin a protest march from the Kelaniya University and begin a continuous Sathyagraha opposite the university.

"We cannot mention where the protest march will end due to security reasons," he said.

Bandara said that they will continue the Sathyagraha until the government gives into the demands of the University teachers.

The Academic calendar had been disrupted in all universities for over two months due to the strike launched by the teachers, he said.

The student activist said that before the teachers launched a strike, academic activities had been halted for one month due to a strike launched by university non-academic staff.

The government gave an assurance that it would rectify the salary anomalies and the non-academic staff ended their strike, but the government has still failed to rectify the anomalies in their salaries. "As a result, they could launch another strike in the near future," he said.

Bandara said that the government was purposely ignoring the university teachers’ problems too.

"We are demanding that the government recommence the academic activities in universities by solving problems of the university teachers and non-academic staff immediately," he said.

Bandara said that they had also started collecting signatures for a public petition demanding an immediate solution to the ongoing university crisis.