Kurukshetra varsity teachers' body threatens stir

Kurukshetra, April 13

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The withdrawal of orders issued by the Director, Higher Education, regarding the conversion of Self-Financed Scheme courses into budgeted one, has triggered a sense of resentment and the teachers’ association is now planning to open a front against the government.

The Kurukshetra University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) said the Director of Higher Education in March circulated a letter to all Vice-Chancellors of the state universities regarding the follow up action based on the recommendations made in the report of the University Review Committee, 2017. The committee had given recommendations, after listening to all stakeholders that all SFS courses, running efficiently since the past five years, be converted into budgeted one. The DHE had called for an action-taken report on the conversion of the SFS courses into budgeted one. However, recently, in a dramatic move, the order was withdrawn by the DHE till further orders, claiming that the same was issued inadvertently.

As per the information, there are 90 teachers, working on a regular basis under the Self-Finance Scheme of the Kurukshetra University. The SFS was introduced in 2006 to improve the ailing financial health of the university. The objective of this scheme was to introduce highly professional, skill-based courses in the state. Currently, among a total of 47 departments and institutes in Kurukshetra University, 13 departments and institutes are running under the SFS. It comprises about 5,000 students in different departments.

Vivek Gaur, president of KUTA, said, “The conversion of SFS courses into budgeted one has been a long-pending demand and the withdrawal of orders has led to resentment among the employees. There are around 250 non-teaching employees too under the SFS. The SFS employees are earning money for the university but they have been discriminated on various fronts as compared to budgeted employees. Their promotions, arrears and all other demands are also still pending. To bring uniformity and a sense of security among the teaching fraternity, existing SFS posts may be converted into budgeted posts with absorption of all existing employee working under the SFS scheme.”“We have met the Director, Higher Education, and the OSD to the CM, and submitted our memorandums. The department must reissue the orders. We are in touch with the associations in other universities too and if the demand is not met, the associations will be forced to launch a stir,” he added. —