University employees to hold rally in Delhi

BHUBANESWAR - Thousands of employees from about 200 universities across the country will gather at New Delhi Dec 1 to press the government for hike in educational funds, a leader of the employees organisation said here Tuesday.

The employees will gather in a rally at the Ramlila Ground and march to the Parliament Street where a mass meeting will be held, said Bhabani Hota, former MP and president of the All India University Employees Confederation (AIUEC) that is organising the rally.

The meeting will be addressed by leaders of various political parties in parliament, Hota told IANS.

AIUEC has been pressing for allocation of six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for education and to save university education from the onslaught of private and foreign direct investment, he said.

The then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi committed to allocate six percent but nothing of the sort was done, he said.

Again the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government committed to do so in 2004 in its Common Minimum Programme. However, the fund allocation has still remained at only 2.6 percent, he said.

Hota said the employees organisation led by him is also against private and foreign direct investment in university education.

If private sector is given a free hand, large section of the people in this country would be deprived of access to higher education which will not do any good to the country in the long run, he said.