The four people who sat on the hunger strike today included M R Passi, treasurer of the association, N K Pillai, secretary, and Parveen Kumar, a member of the PAU Non-Teaching Employees Union.

Said Pillai, “This chain hunger strike will continue till Friday. And if the state government does not come to our aid, we will intensify our stir.”

About 2,500 pensioners of the university have not received their pensioners since December 2008. PAU disburses Rs 2.50 crores as pension fund. With the university pension fund drying up, the pensioners had announced a protest. This was quelled for some time when local political leaders like MLA Harish Rai Dhanda and Member Parliament Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, both of SAD (B), announced that they will pressurize the state government to allocate some funds to the university so that pensions can be given. However, nothing came of their promise.

Meanwhile, the pensioners also held a rally in front of Thapar Hall today morning. Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA) has supported the pensioners, and announced a joint action committee to find a solution to this problem.

As per Mukesh Siag, secretary PAUTA, who is also the convener of the committee, “This committee consists of members of all the three employee associations, viz Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA), PAU Employees Union and PAU Fourth Class Workers Union. In the first meeting of the committee held today, it was decided to extend whole-hearted support to the pensioners in their agitation.”

Siag added that the committee was critical of the government’s non-serious approach to the issue. “Independently, all these associations have been meeting the government at various levels, but have ended up with mere hollow assurances. It was felt by the committee that the government is only delaying things, and nothing concrete has come out yet,” he pointed out.

The committee has once again urged the government to immediately sort out the issue, failing which the agitation will be intensified. Members said that the government will be held responsible for the deteriorating situation on the PAU campus.