Bhubaneswar, Aug. 8: The two-day biennial general council meeting of the All-Orissa University Employees’ Federation began at the Utkal University here today.

On the first day of the meeting, the association came up with an 11-point charter of demands. Bhabani Shankar Hota, former member of Parliament and president of the All-India University Employees’ Confederation said the state government should constitute a state university grant commission on the lines of the University Grants Commission to look after state universities.

“The state government is giving emphasis on privatisation of educational institutes and this must be opposed,” said Hota.

The association’s demands include raising the retirement age from 60-62 years, giving a permanent status to the employees working on contractual basis, non-withdrawal of welfare measures that have already been implemented and all posts except the post of registrar, comptroller of finance and controller of examinations be filled on the basis of promotion.

A resolution was also passed in the meeting to oppose the upcoming Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010. It was also decided to press for democratisation of university administration.

The members also demanded for filling up of various vacancies in different universities across the state.

“More than 1,000 non-teaching posts are lying vacant in various universities across the state. The government must expedite the process of recruitment to fill up vacancies at the earliest,” said Dillip Kumar Panda, president of the association.

At present, as many as 419 non-teaching posts are lying vacant at Utkal University alone.

Similarly, 152 posts are lying vacant at Sambalpur University and another 22 at Berhampur University. The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Utkal University of Culture do not have any permanent staff — all work on contractual basis.

A total of 24 non-teaching employees’ associations of 19 universities of the state participated in the meeting.

Around 4,000 employees of various universities of the state are registered members of the All-Orissa University Employees’ Federation.