All eyes on Punjabi University recruitment

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 6

All eyes are now on the recruitment process being initiated by Punjabi University. The university, which today decided to hire faculty members as per need, already has teachers sitting idle. Insiders say the university is also facing financial constraints leading to its inability to pay salaries.

In a notification passed on to all departments on the campus and the university’s centres today, the Dean, Academics, Dr GS Batra, has stated that the centres should send details of all vacant/sanctioned/filled positions and workload of faculty and contractual teachers for filling of teaching posts. The departments and centres are supposed to send the details by March 11.

The step has been taken after a meeting held by the University Vice-Chancellor and the Dean, Academics, with heads of campuses, colleges and centres associated with the university recently. Officials who attended the meeting said the university authorities discussed low student strength and directed them to merge some classes and centres where the student count was extremely low.

A professor from TPD Malwa College said: “We have more than 2000 students and the teacher count is low. Meanwhile, the student count itself at the Rampura Phul Neighbourhood campus is lower than the teacher count which stands over 30. The university could shift some faculty members here as we are forced to complete the classes with the help of guest faculty.”

University already facing financial constraints

The university is already facing difficulty in releasing the salaries of its employees. A chain of protests organised by professors associated with Punjabi University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) today entered its third day. They are protesting the alleged ‘miss-governance’ at the university. There was also resentment among pensioners as the university had recently failed to credit pensions.

A professor on the campus said: “If the university is not able to credit the salaries of regular employees, how will it make sure to provide the salaries of employees who will be regularly hired?”

President of PUTA Jaswinder Singh Brar said the university was being pushed into a debt trap by borrowing money from banks. He said: “Though there is a genuine need for recruitment in some departments, the recruitment process is yet to take shape as a similar exercise of collecting such details had remained stalled earlier.”

Contractual teachers of constituent colleges have said the recruitment process should be fair.

The PUCTA president, Dr Lovedeep Sharma, said: “Regularisation should be fair and seats should be filled at places where the workload on teachers is excessive.”

Another professor on condition of anonymity, said: “The process of regular hiring is being initiated due to political pressure. Contractual teachers of various centres have already been doing the rounds of the campus in search of workload. Moreover, teachers at centres are sitting idle.”

Dr Batra was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts.