The outgoing Governor-cum-chancellor of Bihar universities, Devanand Konwar, has issued a circular to all vice-chancellors of the state, directing them to implement the merit-cum-time-bound promotion scheme for college and university teachers.
The Nitish Kumar government said the directive, if implemented, would not only lead to flooding of professors and readers in government colleges but would also impose an additional financial burden of over Rs 600 crore per year on the state.
Sources said the Raj Bhavan circular, issued on March 16, directs all universities in the state to give merit-cum-time-bound promotion to teachers working in the post of associate professors (readers) mentioning that the 1986 statute/scheme of 16 years merit-cum-time-bound promotion to university professors has not been repealed yet and as such, as per opinion of the high court “it still exists and will exist”. The circular is, however, silent on which high court ruling it mentions.
The Raj Bhavan passed the order in reference to the promotion of one Dr S.K. Jabeen, reader of Urdu, to the position of university professor in Veer Kunwar Singh University, Ara.
JD(U) MLC Vinod Kumar Choudhary raised the circular issue in the Legislative Council on Monday.
Replying to a call attention motion moved by MLC Vinod Kumar Singh in the Legislative Council, education minister P.K. Shahi said time-bound promotion in universities has been abolished as per the directive passed in 1995, while merit promotion has been abolished in 2001.
Council chairman Awadhesh Narayan Singh directed the government to give a detailed answer on April 1.
Shahi said the education department would review Raj Bhavan’s recent order and would urged the new governor, D.Y. Patil, who would take charge on March 22 to withdraw such notification issued by Konwar.
Sources said the Raj Bhavan notice, with reference to Jabeen, is likely to open gates for those university teachers (readers), whose promotion was due since 1995. The new order was applicable to only readers who have not been promoted to the rank of professor since 1995. In Patna University, there are 63 readers whose promotion to the rank of professor is due, while the number of such teachers is around 1,000 in the state.
A senior teacher of Patna University, preferring anonymity, said: “The Raj Bhavan on 23/9/1995 abolished the time-bound promotion of teachers and replaced it with career advancement scheme (CAS). Under CAS, lecturers (assistant professors) have to be promoted to senior-scale lecturers or selection grade lecturers but in the new scheme, there is no provision for promotion from reader to professor.”
However, the new directive given by Raj Bhavan states that readers working in universities should get promotion too. The senior teacher added: “When the governor has been transferred and the Union government has appointed D.Y. Patil as the new governor of the state, it is not correct of Konwar to pass such an order.”
Patil is set to take oath on March 22. Konwar’s transfer to Tripura was announced on March 9. Despite the marching orders, he went ahead and appointed one more VC and two pro-VCs. The NDA government does not plan to give Konwar a farewell when he departs on March 20.
