SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Dec 14: The long-pending election of the Federation of University Teachers’ Association of Jharkhand (FUTAJ), the frontal organization of teachers of all universities, and colleges in the state is likely to be held in January.
Prof Rajkumar, General Secretary, FUTAJ said, “The outgoing committee is serious about holding the election of state college teachers’ body and if all goes as per plan, the poll would be conducted in the last week of January or the first week of February.”
“Earlier, the teachers’ body of Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University (BBMKU), Dhanbad had expressed willingness to host the poll. So, I would visit Dhanbad soon to discuss with the office-bearers of BBMKU and would finalize the date,” he added.
The election of FUTAJ is due since 2018. Earlier, the election was conducted in 2016 at Sido Kanhu Murmu University (SKMU), Dumka where Prof Navin Kumar Singh (Dumka) and Prof Mithilesh Kumar Singh (Ranchi) were elected as the president and the general secretary respectively.
However, Prof Mithilesh Kumar Singh resigned after he was appointed as the principal of a college at Vinoba Bhave University (VBU), Hazaribag. Later, Prof Rajkumar was unanimously selected as the new general secretary.
As per the FUTAJ statute, the election of the state teachers’ body is to be held after every two years. But as per information, no teachers body in any university of state was prepared to host the poll due to heavy expenditure.
The election of FUTAJ has also become necessary as the present president Prof Navin Kumar Singh is going to retire from service next year.
Besides FUTAJ, the election of the teacher’s body is also due in other universities in the state. The teacher’s body at Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag has been due since 2018. The election is also due at SKMU, Dumka for a long time where Prof NK Singh is the president and Prof Santosh Kumar Sheel is the general secretary.
The poll of BBMKU, Dhanbad is also due. The first election of the teachers’ body was conducted in January 2018 in which Prof RK Tiwari (Bokaro) and Prof Himanshu Shekhar Choudhary (Dhanbad) were elected as the president and the general secretary respectively.
However, Ranchi University Teachers Association (RUTA) and Kolhan University Teachers Association (KUTA) have updated their poll. Prof Rajkumar and Prof Dhirendra are the president and the general secretary of RUTA respectively while Prof Rajendra Bharti and Prof Indal Paswan were elected as the president and general secretary respectively in the KUTA election in 2021.
