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Bhanu P Lohumi
Tribune News Service
Shimla, March 29
While the government college teachers are peeved over “deliberate delay” in holding the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting for regular promotion of college principals, reports of extension in service to some blue-eyed principals have brought the brewing resentment among college teachers to a flash point.
“At present there is no principal in 48 out of 115 colleges, while 18 colleges are being run by officiating principals. Giving extension in service to favourites is having a telling effect on the functioning of the colleges,” general secretary of the Himachal Government College Teachers’ Association (HGCTA) Dr RL Sharma said.
“There are reports that the principal of the Reckong Peo college in Kinnaur district, who is already on one-year extension, is being further given extension and in case this is done the association will oppose it with all its might and even go the extent of boycotting classes,” he cautioned.
The government and department were protecting the interests of some favourites and not resolving the issues of teachers. Even after a number of representations had been made to the Education Department not even single issue was resolved, he said, adding that even the department had snatched many benefits of the UGC like withdrawal of PhD increments to professors in colleges.
The DPC meetings were not being held and the senior teachers not getting their long-due promotions. Instead of raising the retirement age to 60 years, the government was resorting to selective promotions, he rued.
The government was indiscriminately opening new colleges without adequate infrastructure and faculty and teachers from existing colleges, already facing staff crunch, were being shifted to new colleges, he said.
As per promotion rules, 75 per cent posts of principal were filled by promotion and remaining 25 per cent through direct recruitment, but the DPC meeting had not been held for the past more than one year and many senior teachers were on the verge of retirement, he said.
This was affecting the routine activities and teachers were overburdened with work but the government was unconcerned and not serious to solve the problems of teachers, Sharma lamented.
After the implementation of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), the requirement of teachers in colleges has gone up to 1,600 under the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and unfortunately even the teachers appointed through the State Public Service Commission are being given contractual appointments.