Seniority ignored, govt college profs cry foul

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 29

The state Department of Higher Education has been drawing flak from various quarters for “unnecessary” delay in filling vacant posts of principals in the government colleges of the state.

Not only this, a section of senior teachers of these colleges is up in arms against the government for allegedly ignoring their seniority.

They claimed that the department was trying to favour non-eligible candidates and promote them as principals in government colleges of the state. The teachers alleged that most of them did not hold a PhD and so did not qualify for the post.

Out of 48 government colleges in the state, 20 colleges are running without regular principals. The department promoted 63 associate professors as professors by issuing a notification on January 22, 2014. However, since then, they are not even being considered senior to associate professors and assistant professors for filling these vacant posts of principals.

These teachers are now demanding that the state government in the light of a notification of the state government dated September 2, 2009, should create three separate cadres of posts of professor, associate professor and assistant professor in colleges and issue separate seniority list for each of them. Moreover, they are demanding that the 20 vacant posts should be filled from the professors’ cadre since they are the senior most.

Speaking to The Tribune, general secretary of Punjab Government College Professors’ Association (PGCPA) Dr Ashwani Bhalla said that when they presented their claim, the government, in a strange move, wrote to the UGC seeking clarification as to whether professors were senior to associate professors and assistant professors instead of preparing a suitable seniority list.

Moreover, even as the UGC has now clarified through a letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, that professors are senior than associate professors and associate professors are senior than assistant professors, the government is “conveniently not taking any action in the matter to favour a few favourites”.

PGCPA president Dr Bikramjeet Singh Virk said the Higher Education Department had adopted the UGC rules for the promotion and appointments of assistant professors/associate professors/professors and principals in government and aided colleges of the state. It issued a notification in this regard on June 13, 2013, that was signed by Ravneet Kaur, Principal Secretary, Higher Education.

“After the issuance of the UGC regulations 2010, it is mandatory for the institutions of higher learning to appoint principals in the colleges who hold at least a PhD with minimum of 15 years of teaching experience. However, the department says that they are merely following government rules which must have been amended immediately after the implementation of the UGC pay scales from 1-1-2006. If they have not amended the rules, it’s their fault not ours,” he said.

Higher Education Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra when contacted said that while appointing principals in government colleges of the state, the clarification issued by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, and the UGC regulations would be taken into consideration.