NEHU workers go on hunger strike citing indifference

SHILLONG, June 7: Displeased with the authority at the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, the All NEHU Workers’ Union has gone on a hunger strike from Tuesday to protest against the university authority for not responding to the union’s slew of demands.
According to the president of the union, Napoleon Mawphniang, the workers are forced to go on a hunger strike as they have been not received a response despite the protest which took place last week.
“We had anticipated that we would be called for a dialogue by the authorities. But we have not received a reply to our charter of demands,” the union president said.
Asserting that they did not want to waste the time of the university administration, Mawphniang said that what they wanted was written communication or an invitation for negotiation.
Questioning if Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, is willing to meet the workers’ union members, then why the Vice Chancellor (VC) is not willing to meet them, Mawphniang said, “We want direct interaction with the VC since our demand is to regularise the service of the workers who have served for more than 10 years”.