Public univ teachers seek PM\\\'s help

Public university teachers sought on Sunday Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's intervention in looking into the prevailing issue relating to their demand for a separate pay scale.
They also threatened to go for a tougher movement after Eid, if the government does not take a realistic and constructive decision to end the crisis.
They were speaking at a press conference at the Dhaka University Club on the day.
"We want Prime Minister's immediate intervention in this issue. We will not stop the movement even if any cabinet member assures us of a solution," said Prof Dr ASM Maksud Kamal, secretary general of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA).
"We want to sit with the government to settle the issue immediately, but we will not sit with the finance minister," he said.  
Teachers of 37 public universities observed a daylong work abstention on Sunday across the country, demanding salaries with due dignity in the eighth national pay scale and a separate wage structure. However, the examinations remained out of purview of the protest programme.
At the press conference, the association's President, Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, said the finance minister made the countrymen confused through his misleading remarks against the university teachers."He [Muhith] has grown old. It is time for him to resign," he said. He said they would observe the same programme at all public universities across the country on September 17 to realise the demands.
On September 8, Muhith came down heavily on the teachers of 37 public universities for their work abstention protesting discrepancies in the eighth national pay scale.
"Their [the teachers'] work abstention has no justification," he told reporters at the Secretariat.
"I am extremely surprised that the most educated section [of our population] has gone for such a movement due to their lack of knowledge."
The finance minister, however, withdrew his remarks later and apologised.
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