Haryana's Group-A officers need Finance Dept’s nod for higher studies

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, November 27

Now, Group-A government officers, including college teachers, will have to obtain permission for higher studies from the Department of Finance in place of the head of their department. The development has caused resentment, especially among teachers working in government colleges.

“The government has decided that the permission for higher studies to Group-A officers shall be considered and granted by the Finance Department on the recommendation of the administrative department concerned,” states a communiqué sent recently by the office of the Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) to heads of all government departments in the state.

Will lead to inordinate delay

Obtaining permission from the principal was the simplest and best way but the new instructions will lead to inordinate delay in getting approval and teachers will have to pay the price as everything is time-bound in education. — Ravi Shankar, Spokesman, Haryana government college teachers association

Raising an objection to the move, the Haryana Government College Teachers Association (HGCTA) claimed that it would not only take a long time to get permission as the application would pass through various channels but also promote the pick-and-choose policy as no time limit has been fixed for that.

“In terms of teachers, the principal of the college concerned was earlier authorised for the permissions but the government has now snatched this power from them. The association demands rollback of the decision as education is a fundamental right of every citizen and the process to get permission for that should be easiest and less time-consuming,” said Dr Amit Chaudhary, President, HGCTA.

He said, “We don’t know what the government is up to. The decision has complicated the entire process. It may sound good for the non-teaching departments, but it will be strange if teachers of higher education, too, have to undergo this process.”

Ravi Shankar, a spokesman for the HGCTA, informed that the move would certainly affect the rights of the college teachers as all those who had got senior scales were Class-I officers and they had to do PhD for being promoted as Associate Professors.

“The process of obtaining permission from the college principal for higher studies was the simplest and best way but the new instructions will lead to inordinate delay in getting permission and the teacher concerned will have to pay the price for that as everything is time-bound in the studies,” he claimed.