DU teachers gherao VC office against appointment of guests teachers instead of ad hoc faculty

Protesting against a circular mandating appointment of guest teachers instead of making ad hoc faculty permanent, almost 5,000 Delhi University teachers on Wednesday entered a building housing the VC's office after breaking three gates and allegedly painted graffiti on the historic structure.

The Viceregal Lodge Estate houses the office of the DU vice-chancellor. The teachers, cutting across political affiliations, entered its premises by breaking three gates leading to the office.

The teachers have said they will continue to occupy the building till their demands are met and will also boycott official duties. They said no efforts had been made by the VC to meet the representatives of DUTA.

In the morning, they had assembled at gate number 4 of the university which was closed with a heavy deployment of security personnel. The teachers broke open the gate and barged inside, and then entered through another gate, specially meant for the vice-chancellor, despite security personnel offering resistance.

Later, they marched to the reception area and broke open that gate, thereby occupying the building. The scuffle between the security personnel and teachers also caused injuries to some security personnel, sources said.

The call for an indefinite strike was given by Delhi University Teachers' Association which is led by Left-backed Democratic Teachers' Front (DTF) but it has received support from Congress-backed Academics For Action and Development (AAD) and right-wing outfit National Democratic Teachers' Front.

The walls of the building were painted with slogans 'End slavery and humiliation', 'Our right, Absorption', '#VC down', 'Thank you VC for not thinking about 4000 families'.

DUTA president Rajib Ray denied the charge that the graffiti was was painted by the teachers. "Teachers have not done it. We do not know who has painted those messages," he said.

However, some teachers claimed that a section body teaching staff was involved.

According to a teacher, when they reached the office, the vice-chancellor was not present, but some of his staff members were there who left when the teachers entered the building.

Almost 200 teachers are inside the council hall where the Academic Council and Executive Council meetings are held and they were chanting slogans against the administration.

Through the day, the teachers raised slogans like 'DU VC down down', 'yeh shiksha hai, kisi ki jaagir nahi' as they continued to occupy the building.

Rupesh Shukla, a professor at the College of Vocational Studies, said, "We had given a time of three days to the vice-chancellor to have talks with us but there was no response from his end. We want that there should be one-time absorption of all teachers and promotions that have been denied for long be given to them."