Promotion issue: Patna varsity teachers cry discrimination

PATNA: Patna University (PU) teachers are up in arms against the alleged discriminatory attitude of the authorities concerned in according promotion to the university teachers recently. Only a select group of teachers who are close to politicians and bureaucrats have been promoted, while the majority of deserving ones have been left out, feel the aggrieved teachers.
In a memorandum submitted to vice-chancellor Sudhir Kumar Srivastava, they pointed out some glaring discrepancies in the promotions being accorded to the teachers under career advancement scheme.The teachers were given promotion from the date of the meeting of the selection committee and not from the date of their eligibility. This would cause irreparable loss of promotional benefits and also affect their seniority, they said.
They further pointed out that no uniform yardstick was adopted while deciding the cases of promotion of teachers by the selection committee. In some subjects, only teachers having experience of post-graduate teaching were promoted to the next higher ranks and those working in colleges were left out. In other subjects, even college teachers were granted promotion. Some teachers of Magadh Mahila College and B N College were promoted as professors without having any experience of post-graduate teaching, but some other college teachers were not granted promotion on the plea that they did not have the experience of post-graduate teaching. The promotion statutes do not provide post-graduate teaching experience a mandatory qualification for promotion, they said.
“It is surprising to note that the last date for submission of applications by university teachers for their promotion to the next higher rank under career advancement scheme was March 31, 2014, but the university did not take up the work of screening and promotion until November 2016 and that, too, on the pressure of some bureaucrats and politicians,” said an aggrieved teacher.
Outgoing vice-chancellor Y C Simhadri convened the meetings of selection committees only in a few subjects and did not place the cases of all teachers before the committees. Even the cases cleared by the screening committee were not placed before the selection committee for promotion. Furthermore, the cases of teachers who had submitted their applications for promotion well within the time, but retired subsequently owing to the delay in the process of screening by the university, were not placed before the selection committee.
The affected teachers, including Patna University Teachers’ Association former general secretary and Patna College sociology teacher Randhir Kumar Singh, Patna Women’s College teachers Shefali Roy, Ameeta Jaiswal, Punam Kumari and Kumari Rupam have urged the VC to resume the process of promotion so that the cases of all eligible teachers are cleared by the selection committee. The discrepancies occurring in the promotions already accorded should also be removed in the larger interest of the teaching community, they added.