A section of the university’s employees have called the present policy “discriminatory” — the university authorities did not mark anyone absent on the day the CPM had called a bandh last week, but all those who could not make it on Trinamool’s day got a red mark in the attendance register.
Members of the Calcutta University Employees’ Unity Centre submitted a memorandum to newly-appointed registrar Basab Chowdhury on Tuesday, demanding the authorities find a uniform policy for attendance on bandh days — irrespective of which party has called the bandh. They have pointed out that the CPM and the Trinamool had both called 12-hour bandhs.
Sources in the university however defended its decision to grant mass leave on the CPM’s day as the ruling party’s bandh was more “complete”. They said the state government had run its full fleet of buses the next day when Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee had declared bandh on the same issue — price rise on petrol products and LPG cylinders. Several officers, including the senior brass, had attended work that day, university officials pointed out. However, nearly 20,000 students had stayed away on both days.