DUTA Letter to MHRD, 03.03.2019
Sh. Prakash Javadekar Date: 03.03.2019
Hon’ble Minister, Human Resources Development
Shastri Bhavan
New Delhi – 110001
Sub: Demand for immediately bringing a Bill/ Ordinance restoring 200 pt. Reservation Roster with College/University as Unit for Teaching Posts and other demands
Dear Shri Javadekar,
It is with a deep sense of disappointment and anguish that teachers have been forced with no option but to continue the Strike they had to start on 27 February 2019 for yet another week. In no small measure the failure of the Government to honour the promise made by you several times, including the promise made in the Rajya Sabha only recently, with regard to enacting a law on reservation roster is responsible for this situation when teachers have to disengage from teaching their students.
That no positive response has been forthcoming from your end to our repeated plea for justice to teachers and concern for education is disheartening: whether it is the (a) demand for a one time Regulation for absorption of 4000 young teachers working in temporary and ad hoc capacity under most exploitative and insecure conditions due to not making permanent recruitment for nearly a decade or (b) the demand for withdrawal of the SLP the DU has filed under your direction challenging the High Court grant of pension to teachers and non-teaching employees under Category I and Category II or (c) the demand for redressing the anomalies, omissions and commissions in UGC Regulations 2018 that falls short of giving adequate relief to teachers who were denied promotional opportunities for a decade.
Your response to our demand to hold back the various measures such as tripartite agreement and imposition of various forms of financial autonomy – all forcing universities to rely more and more on internal resource generation and self-financing by reorienting their activities and academic content and research areas to be dictated by ephemeral market demands – has been one of non-engagement.
On the matter of reservation roster, however, after the questionable UGC notification of 5 March 2018, you had been promising an Ordinance to restore college/ university wise 200 point reservation roster. You have also accepted that the alternative notified in the 5 March 2018 notification fails to meet the just and Constitutional provision regarding percentage of reservation for SC, ST and OBC. It was shocking for us that even after the Supreme Court dismissed the Review Petition on 26th February 2018, the Cabinet met but did not propose promulgation of any Ordinance in the matter. Newspapers were carrying daily stories for few days prior to the court order that according to officials of your ministry a draft had been sent for the consideration of the Union Cabinet. That the same has not been done has strengthened the impression that the Union Government is not seriously concerned with social justice and justice for young talents who have chosen teaching profession despite hostile and unattractive service conditions. We will fail in our duty if we do not remind you that many teachers working in reserved positions, the extreme case being ST teachers, will be thrown out of their jobs after years of serving if the Government does not restore the college/ university wise roster. A huge number of teachers, whether working against unreserved posts or posts reserved for one or other category will be displaced from their place of work if roster points were to change. They too will not be assured of accommodation elsewhere. The immense magnitude of the problem and injustice to teachers for whom we have been seeking a one time Regulation for absorption is going to face us immediately.
The DUTA, therefore, has decided to support the call for Bharat Bandh on 5th March 2019 to mark the anniversary of the infamous UGC Notification on Reservation Roster and march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar to demand immediate promulgation of the promised Ordinance and for an Ordinance to ensure that tribals and forest dwellers shall not be evicted from their traditional areas of habitation.
That the Government is unmoved by the plight of teachers (whether young or the elderly or those in between), whose lives and livelihood are under attack, does not speak well of its attitude towards teachers and education.
We hope the Government will take appropriate steps immediately to dispel our impression.
With warm regards,
| Rajib Ray President, DUTA Vivek Chaudhary Secretary, DUTA |
Annexure I: DUTA letter to Hon’ble Minister, Human Resource Development dated 24.01.2019 - Link
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