HYDERABAD: The crisis at the three IIITs under the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, has deepened further as both the striking staff and university authorities have made no progress in breaking the deadlock.As a result, 6,000 students from first and second year of Intermediate who were sent home on a long holiday in view of the strike are facing an uncertain future. Both the mentors and home room tutors (HRTs) are on strike for the past three weeks and intensified it by launching an indefinite hunger strike.Though the RGUKT authorities issued orders removing the HRTs from their posts last week, it seems the contracts between HRTs and the RGUKT ended an year ago and they were never renewed.However, the mentors got stay orders from the Supreme Court when the management tried to sack them after expiry of their contract in November 2010.MentorsThey are faculty members at IIITs just like lecturers in regular colleges.Home Room TutorsHRTs are basically technical assistants in IIITs with basic qualification of graduation or post-graduation diploma in Information Technology.There are 225 of them in the three IIITs at Nuzvid (77), Basara (70) and Idupulapaya (78). The concept was to accomodate HRTs along with students in hostel rooms to help students in their academics. The HRTs are also responsible for ensuring proper functioning of LAN in the campus, maintenance of servers, laptop and projectors, OS installations and content preparation.Beginning of troublesWhen the IIITs came into existence in 2007, the RGUKT authorities recruited most staff on contract basis. Ever since, most staff including mentors and HRTs have remained under contract and there was no hike in their salaries due to fund crunch.Demanding for resolutions of their problems, they went on relay hunger strike from October 21 to November 9, but the management terminated their services on November 9 without prior notice, deepening the crisis.Were there any talks between the striking staff and management?While the striking staff claim they were not invited for talks till date, the management claims they held talks with the HRTs who were not ready to budge on their demands.However, the management constituted the Somaiah committee to study all issues in the institutions on October 15.
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