UNIVERSITIES RE-OPEN (99 May 19)
The Universities, which had to be closed due to a strike by the non-academic staff, were back to normal on Monday the 17th. The non-academic staff union, which met the authorities, decided to call off the strike as from the previous Friday after they were promised that the anomalies in the salaries of their members would be rectified. No decision has been taken over most of the other demands including a pension scheme for the university staff.
However there is another threat to the functioning of the universities as the administrative staff of the universities, including the registrars and the bursars, have said that they would stop work with effect from the 20th. They are demanding that they should be paid the book allowance given to the academic staff. This demand has no merit what so ever and would result only in prolongation of the academic year making it inconvenience to the students.