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IIT, Madras, closed following caste clash among staff

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, was today ordered shut until March 2 following clashes between two groups of the non-teaching staff.

IIT Director R Natarajan said the institute was closed as a cooling period, to restore normalcy on the campus, which houses more than 10,000 people, including 3,000 students.

Police were called in to defuse the situation, which was assuming casteist overtones.

Scuffles broke out between two sections of the employees after a scheduled-caste employee was abused by an office-bearer of the IIT Employees' Association.

This is the second time the institute has had to be closed. The first was in 1973, when the Central Reserve Police Force was called in to restore normalcy.

The problem started when the SC/ST Employees' Welfare Association declined to participate in the agitation launched by the IIT Employees' Association demanding that the retirement age be raised from 60 to 62 years and wages be increased.

The situation reached flash point yesterday, when verbal abuses were exchanged on microphones.

Natarajan, however, said the hostels, hospitals and laboratories would function and the faculty is free to conduct classes.

UNI

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