Punjabi University assistant professors hold protest against transfers

Patiala, January 7

Assistant professors of Punjabi University staged a protest over transfers on the campus here today. They were ‘transferred to their original place of appointment’ as per orders of the Vice-Chancellor issued yesterday. While the teachers alleged that the university was biased in transferring only a select few, the university refuted the charges and said the transfers from their original places had been carried out under political pressure and were wrong.

The university on Thursday issued transfer orders to 31 assistant professors who have been working at its various campuses.

Director constituent colleges Trishanjit Kaur said the constituent colleges had been established as part of an initiative of the Central Government to provide higher education in remote areas of the state. “Thirteen such colleges are being run under Punjabi University. A set number of teachers were hired for them, but with time, they were transferred to different locations that affected the level of education in the remote colleges which were left without regular teachers. All such teachers are being transferred back to their original places of appointment,” Kaur said.

One of the protesters, assistant professor Ravinder Ghuman, alleged the university had adopted a pick-and-choose method to transfer only selected teachers. “This is while the university does not have a proper transfer policy”, he said. He said the transferred teachers would now start a hunger strike.

Responding to the same, Vice-Chancellor Prof Arvind said, “The assistant professors are being transferred to their original place of appointment. In fact, their appointment letters categorically mentioned that they will not be transferred to any other location and their appointments were being made for the specific colleges. With time, the university transferred them to areas close to cities. Today’s decision is a corrective measure and we have sent them back to their original places.”

He said the university was in favour of preparing a transfer policy. — TNS