In an unprecedented action, 1,500 faculty members of Indian Institutes of Technology across the

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country on Thursday went on a day-long hunger strike protesting anomalies in their pay structure but classes were not affected.

With both government and IIT faculty refusing to budge from their stands on the issue of pay structure, no end to the strike appeared in sight even as HRD minister Kapil Sibal said he is open to dialogue with the agitating professors on their demands. He, however ruled out "world class" salaries due to lack of resources.

"Our fast was very successful. We are yet to get any response from the HRD ministry on our demand for a joint meeting with the representatives of the ministry, IIT directors and us. We hope the ministry will get back to us," all-India IIT faculty federation president M Thenmozi said.

Criticising the agitation by the IIT faculty, Sibal said "This (agitation) has nothing to do with the autonomy or functioning of IITs. It is only, and only, about pay structure."The minister made it clear that he was upset by the "ultimatum" of October 1 set by the protesting faculty.