SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 21: With the retirement of the president Prof Navin Kumar Singh, the Federation of Universities Teachers Association of Jharkhand (FUTAJ), the frontal organization of teachers of all seven universities of the state, has become headless.
Prof Navin Kumar Singh (SKMU Dumka) retired on May 31st but FUTAJ has neither selected an ad-hoc president nor announced the election of the new body whose tenure was completed five years ago in 2018.
Sources said six months ago Prof Singh had informed the FUTAJ office bearers to hold an election as he would retire on May 31st but no step was initiated to hold a poll. FUTAJ general secretary Prof Rajkumar (Ranchi University) had last year announced to hold the election in October- November (2022) but his plan did not materialize.
After the creation of Jharkhand, the first election of FUTAJ was held in 2016 at Dumka. Prof Mithilesh Kumar Singh ( Ranchi University) and Prof Rajiv Ranjan of Marwari College Ranchi were unanimously elected general secretary and treasurer respectively.
The election was held only for the post of president for which four candidates Prof Balbir Singh Sidhu (VBU Hazaribagh), Prof NK Singh ( SKMU Dumka), Prof Pashupati Ray (AS College Deoghar) and Prof Shrawan Kumar (SS Memorial College Ranchi) staked the claim.
Since Prof NK Singh had the support of veteran teachers leaders like Prof Baban Choubey, Prof KK Sharma, Prof GC Jha and Prof BK Sabaria, two candidates Prof Ray and Prof Kumar withdrew their names supporting Prof NK Singh. In the election, Prof Singh defeated Prof Sidhu.
However, within a year general secretary, Prof Mithilesh Singh resigned from the post after being appointed principal in Ramgarh College. FUTAJ unanimously elected Prof Rajkumar in his place.
Though the tenure of the committee was completed in 2018, due to Covid and other reasons election is still pending. Prof Sarita Srivastava who played an active role in the 2016 election, this time looks reluctant. “Teachers are divided on different issues and they do not support each other. Even seniors did not support me which upset me. So I have sidelined myself ”, said Prof Srivastava who is leading an agitation against leave curtail order.
Interestingly founders of FUTAJ Prof KK Sharma, Prof Baban Choubey, Prof GCC Jha and Prof BK Sabaria who fought lifelong in the interest of teachers are still mum on holding the long pending election.
When Jharkhand became a separate state in 2000, on request of the teachers federation of Bihar Universities and All India Federation Prof Baban Choubey and Prof KK Sharma agreed to become ad-hoc president and general secretary of FUTAJ respectively. They held the first election in 2016.
