SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, July 24: It is irony for higher education in Jharkhand that its three universities out of seven do not have a single university professor.
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University (SMU) Ranchi, Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University (BBMKU) Dhanbad and Nilamber Pitamber University (NPU) Palamu all have 21-22 postgraduate (PG) departments but not have a professor in any subject.
Either associate professor or assistant professor heads the department at these three universities.
SMU Ranchi is under the nose of the Chancellor’s office/state government but is functioning without a professor.
A similar condition is in BBMKU Dhanbad. It has 22 PG departments but all are without professor. In 2017 BBMKU became a separate university from the colleges of Vinoba Bhave University which had at that time three professors Dr RC Prasad (political science), Dr Mantu Singh (commerce) and Dr Anwar Mallick (botany).
Dr RC Prasad opted for BBMKU and after his retirement made the Dhanbad university professor less.
At that time BBMKU had senior associate professors Dr SKL Das (economics) of the 1978 batch and Dr B Kumar (chemistry) of the 1979 batch but they were not given promotions despite having eligibility. Interestingly their batch professors who opted Bihar cadre became professors and retired.
NPU Palamu is also facing a similar crisis. A few years ago the government appointed five professors through JPSC to Palamu University. But the teachers who had been selected for NPU did not go and preferred to stay in their home universities VBU and BBMKU as associate professors.
However, Ranchi University (RU) has the highest five university professors in the state including Dr Kunul Kandil (botany), Dr Suresh Sahu (commerce), Dr UC Jha (English), Hiranandan (Hindi department) and one in Sanskrit department.
But the other three universities Kolhan University (KU) Chaibasa, Sido Kanhu Murmu University (SKMU) Dumka and Vinoba Bhave University (VBU) Hazaribag each has only a single professor.
Dr Mundita Chandra (Hindi department) is the lone university professor at KU Chaibasa. Dr R KS Choudhary ( philosophy) is also alone in SKMU Dumka. He was in VBU Hazaribagh and has been transferred to Dumka two years ago.
VBU Hazaribagh too has a single professor Dr Mithilesh Kumar Singh (Hindi department) and he is set to retire soon. Two other professors Dr Mantu Singh (commerce) and Dr Anwar Maillick who remained in VBU after BBMKU was carved out from it in 2017, have already retired.
The irony of fate is that all seven universities have enough eligible teachers for the post but have not been given promotion in 23 years.
“Since Dr Syed Ahmed to the present Governor we have apprised and requested repeatedly to give due promotion to teachers for the improvement of higher education but no one took cognizance of the crisis”, said Dr Raj Kumar, secretary Federation of the University Teachers Association of Jharkhand (FUTAJ), the frontal organization of all universities teachers of the state.
