Bhubaneswar: Students and researchers are facing a lot of problems as regular teachers are not being appointed in universities controlled by the state government due to the judicial wrangle. With no clarity as on when the disputes between the Union Government-controlled University Grants Commission (UGC) and the State Government will be resolved, many meritorious students who have done M.Phil and PhD after winning gold medals with the highest marks of universities in various subjects are migrating to other states.
It may be mentioned here that as per the earlier system, each university used to fill its own vacant teaching posts in various subjects directly on the basis of recruitment and promotion. Of course, the approval of the Vice-Chancellor and the Governor was sought for this. Ever since the State Government banned recruitment since the late 1990s under the alibi of a financial crisis, the regular recruitment process in universities face roadblock and some posts were filled up after the Department of Finance approval. For this, the universities of the state used to form special selection committees on the basis of UGC guidelines.
However, the State Government amended the Odisha Universities Act and entrusted the responsibility of appointing teachers of the universities to the Odisha Public Service Commission. The bill in this regard passed by the Assembly was also approved by the then Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal. Voices of protest were raised from various quarters as the recruitment process started through the Public Service Commission after it became a law. About two years ago, the UGC filed an SLP in the Supreme Court against the case after the Orissa High Court dismissed the case. The Public Service Commission has not been able to go ahead with the recruitment of university teachers as the matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
Legal experts and officials associated with the case admit that it has not been finalized in the Supreme Court. It is difficult to say how many more years it will take for the Orissa University Law Amendment case to be disposed off.
A large number of teaching posts are currently lying vacant in government run universities in the state. Invariably, the universities are running with less than a third of regular teachers. Utkal University, the oldest in the state, has only nine professors, while the situation is similar in Sambalpur.
Ravenshaw and Shree Jagannath Universities are better off not to talk about the problem. Maharaja Sri Ramachandra Bhanjadeo, Gangadhar Meher, Ramadevi, Fakirmohan, Rajendra University, Madhusudan Law University, Kalahandi University, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Odisha Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Odia University and two other government run universities in Keonjhar are facing acute teacher shortage as a number of departments do not have Professors.
While the universities are running with the support of guest faculty, there are demands from various quarters to resolve the matter immediately and fill up all the vacant teaching posts keeping in mind the larger interest of the state and the student society.