DU teachers on strike. What forced them to this

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) has gone on strike for two days, starting Tuesday, to protest the displacement of ad-hoc teachers.

Alleging discrepancies in recent appointments at the university's Faculty of Law, the DUTA said though permanent appointments have been made there, almost half its ad-hoc teachers have been displaced.

“Appointing permanent faculty members in colleges of Delhi University has been slow in the past decade.

Almost 4,000 teachers are on an ad-hoc basis. The regularisation of ad-hoc teachers has been a long standing demand of ours,” DUTA President Rajib Ray told Catch.

“Last month, the faculty regularised appointments of 40-odd teachers, but also displaced the same number of ad-hoc teachers, who have been teaching for almost a decade or so,” he added.

The DUTA also alleged that the marks of the selected candidates under 50:30:20 were not shared with the Executive Council (EC) of the university. Such sharing is mandatory under rules set y the University Grants Commission.

“It came as a shock at the EC meeting on 30 January that in permanent appointments made at the Faculty and at the education department, the breakup of marks awarded to appointed teachers was not presented by the selection committee,” EC member Rajesh Jha told Catch.

“Also, the criterion for awarding marks in various categories have also not been made public. We demand that the sanctity of the appointment process remains intake and in compliance with the UGC norms.” he added.

According to a press release from ad-hoc teachers:

• On the night of 30 January some applicants received calls to join as Assistant Professor
• any official declaration of the results was absent on the university website, national dailies or other public platforms.
• The selection process was lengthy (interviews were held July-September)
• On 30 January, the selections were announced to the EC; it hasn't been notified publicly yet
• Several candidates have joined despite the results not being declared officially.
  
  Edited by Joyjeet Das