RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Oct.27: As Jharkhand High Court stayed the appointment of assistant professors cum junior scientists at Birsa Agriculture University on a contract basis, vice-chancellor Onkar Nath Singh finds it difficult to run the university.
Vice-chancellor Singh shared his problem with Lagatar24.com saying he will soon discuss the matter with the government and advocate and find out some way out to run the university properly.
“As a vice-chancellor, I can only appoint someone on contract basis. As the high court has stayed the process of appointment on a contract basis, the situation has become challenging for me. However, I want to generate possibilities in the face of challenges and have planned to discuss the issue with the advocate and the state government to find out some way till regular appointment,” Singh said when contacted for his comment after development in the high court.
Asked about the number of vacancies in the university, he, who is supposed to file an affidavit in the matter before the court in four weeks, said: “It must be over 100.”
The case arose after Sanjeet Kumar and 13 others working on a contract basis in the university filed a petition before the court saying they cannot be removed from their services till the appointment of regular assistant professors while the university has started to appoint fresh assistant professors on contract basis.
The court stayed the process expressing its displeasure over the practice of contract appointment even after 20 years of the creation of Jharkhand. Fixing the date of hearing after four weeks the court also directed the vice-chancellor to file an affidavit in the matter saying why it is being done while the supreme court has asked the state to consider making regular appointments only and dropping the idea of making irregular appointments so as to short circuit the process of regular appointments.
As the university vice-chancellor is worried following the stay on process of appointment on a contract basis, thousands of contract workers across the state welcomed the move saying that it will pave the path of regular appointment that will also benefit old employees working on a contract basis.
“On August 1, 2018 a division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta gave a clear cut opinion to the state to consider making regular appointments. The state has taken the opinion for granted. The order was passed when BJP was in power. It was expected that when the JMM would come into power something new would happen. But the situation did not change. Now when the matter has again come before the court some positive outcome will definitely come,” a contract employee said welcoming the development taking place in the high court.
“This is nothing but a form of exploitation of the employees by not giving them the benefits of regularization and by placing the sword of Damocles over their head,” the court while disposing of a case of a section of contract employees, who were struggling for their service regularization after working got more than 10 years, had observed.
