The Nehu employees, protesting under the banner of the Joint Action Committee, today said they came to know about the police deployment since Friday.Tandon, however, said it was after a group of employees came to his residence shouting slogans against him when his wife was alone on Friday that he had sought security cover.
In a statement issued here, the president of Nehu Teachers Association, S. Prasad, claimed that though there has not been any untoward incident on the campus, Tandon had still sought security cover.
“Our agitation has been peacefully continuing for the last 45 days. But the security deployment provided only for Tandon indicates how much he is concerned about himself and not about the employees and students of the university,” Prasad said.
Tandon told The Telegraph today that more than 250 employees had come to his residence on Friday and shouted slogans against him in front of the house while his wife was alone.
“I was in a meeting with the chief minister and after my panic-stricken wife called me, I sought security cover for my family,” Tandon said.
According to the Nehu vice-chancellor, the employees came to his residence and shouted slogans and made derogatory remarks against him which were unbecoming of the teachers’ community.
Commenting on the stand of the employees who wanted to barge into his residence, he said that they were emotionally charged but could not enter the house as both the gates were closed.
“I informed the district administration and it has provided security to my family accordingly,” Tandon said.
The vice-chancellor recollected that he was literally “locked up” in his office on December 22 by the employees following the decision of the executive council to cancel the implementation of the hills area special allowance.
The employees, however, reminded that on December 22, when they were agitating for the restoration of the allowance, the security guard of Tandon had pointed his gun towards them, which had aggravated the situation.
However, the Nehu top functionaries had denied any such incident and said that the security guard was protecting the vice-chancellor in such a volatile situation.