Darjeeling, Aug 11: Employees of HMI today withdrew their cease-work,
however they wore black badges and hoisted black flags indicating
that work was started “under protest”.
Their was still, discontentment among the staff members who were
demanding that defence personnel on deputation should be withdrawn
within a fortnight.
The personal assistant to the principal, Mahindra Pradhan, was
offered khadas by the members of the Hill Employees’ Association
as he entered his office this morning. J. S. Dhillon, principal
of the institution has locked the office of the PA before he left
for Delhi, hence, the employees had decided to cease work in protest.
According to Dhillon, the withdrawal of the defence personnel under
deputation depended upon the discretion of the government.
Dhillon also said that the work culture of the institution should
be seriously reviewed by the government. He stated that after he
joined the institute 10 months ago, the number of trainees had increased
from 754 to 2003. Revenue had increased from Rs 36 lakh to 64 lakh.
The Hill Employees’ Association’s central committee
had written to the Defence Minister and the Chief Minister demanding
the withdrawal of defence personnel from the institute, and had
requested the agenda to be included in the executive committee meeting
of the HMI held in Kolkata recently. |