Teachers vie with one another to become officiating principal

BATHINDA: A feverish race is on among teachers of SSD Girls College here for the post of officiating principal. All the hopefuls have had been trying to ingratiate themselves with the college management for more than one year.
The controversy started when the management allegedly violated norms and appointed a junior lecturer as officiating principal.Now, the situation is getting out of hand because of groupism among the members of SSD Sabha Bathinda and their meddling in the management of the college, said reliable sources. The battle for the plum post is getting more partisan and bitter with every passing day.
In fact, five heads of the departments in the college have sought the intervention of the vice-chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, on Thursday to resolve the issue.
The teachers alleged that after the retirement of Mrs S Bhasin, the regular principal in the college in January 2000, no regular principal had been appointed so far. In a letter to V-C, P Bakshi, head of Punjabi department, Veena Sharma, head of political science department, Darshana Bansal, head of economics department, Promila Rani, head of English department and Jaswinder Kaur, head of music department in the college alleged that the controversy started last year when the management violated norms to appoint a junior lecturer as officiating principal so that she could use the tag of retired principal post retirement.
Raj Kansal, a senior lecturer, who was working as officiating principal since January 2000 was forced to proceed on long leave by the management so that the junior lecturer could be appointed as officiating principal superseding three other senior lecturers, alleged the teachers.
Though the university rules say that the senior most teacher in a college would only be appointed as officiating principal, but in the college a junior teacher was appointed for the office for her closeness with some members of the management body, alleged these teachers.
P Bakshi, who claimed herself to be the senior most teacher in the college and was officiating principal of the college till March 31 this year, alleged that on March 31 the college management pressurised her to go on leave for giving the post to a junior teacher.
And even after the junior teacher retired as officiating principal on May 31, the college management did not allow Bakshi to take charge of the principal''s office and appointed another junior teacher to the post, alleged Bakshi and other teachers in the letter. They urged the V-C to take the matter seriously as it was causing irreparable loss to the students and the stature of the college.