Patna, March 12: The government today announced it would introduce a bill in the current session of the legislature for recruiting lecturers in constituent colleges and postgraduate classes of universities through the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

Lecturers in the universities of Bihar were last appointed in 2003.

“At present, there are over 3,000 vacancies of teachers in the universities,” education minister P.K. Shahi said while responding to a question from the CPI’s Awadhesh Kumar Rai, who asked the government if it was true that 25,000 youths holding doctorate degrees in Bihar were jobless because no recruitment had taken place in constituent colleges.

Shahi, however, said the recruitment would take place only after rationalisation of posts. “We will be able to identify the number of students and teachers in various faculties,” he said.

Rationalisation of teachers, the minister added, had been approved by the governor’s office and the education department had been asked to implement it.

“How have you been running the universities for the last seven years with over 3,000 vacancies,” taunted leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui, pointing out that the government had a fluctuating stand on the recruitment of lecturers. “First you dissolved the Bihar University Service Commission and handed the job to the universities. Then you stopped the universities from making the appointment. Then you had a bill passed which was aimed at reviving the university commission. Now you are saying that the appointments would be made through BPSC,” he said.

Shahi maintained that when they came to power, the university service commission stood discredited for the past appointments it had made. “We gave the task to the universities in the belief that it would do the job more credibly. But we found that the job done by vice-chancellors and pro-vice-chancellors appointed by the governor lacked transparency. Raj Bhavan has been sitting on the bill to revive the university service commission for over a year,” he said.

Academicians are both relieved and sceptical over Shahi’s announcement. “We desperately need more teachers. The recruitments can be made by whatever agency. BPSC is a recognised agency, the only thing is that it should be done fast,” said Prof. P.K. Poddar, president of Patna University Teachers’ Association.