University employees hold rally, seek funds for education

“The employees staged a mass-meeting at Jantar Mantar to press for their eight-point charter of demands,” Bhabani Hota, former MP and president of the All India University Employees' Confederation (AIUEC), which organised the rally, told IANS.

The demands include allocation of six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to education and saving of university education from the onslaught of private and foreign direct investment, among others, he said.

Those who addressed the gathering were the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Basudeb Acharia, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan, and Congress leader Jagdambika Pal.

"The AIUEC has been pressing for allocation of six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for education. Former 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 is still only 2.6 percent," he said.

Hota said the employees were also opposed to private and foreign direct investment in university education. "If private sector is given a free hand, large sections 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.