RTI brings to fore backlog of ST vacancies in state universities

Agencies
Posted online: Mar 20, 2009 at 0041 hrs
Ahmedabad :
The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has recently slammed the Gujarat government on the issue of inadequate Scheduled Tribe representation in various government institutes across the state.
G S Somavat, NCST regional director, Jaipur, had remarked: “Gujarat has a huge backlog of ST vacancies; (this is) the precise reason why the state government has not furnished us the details of the vacancies in spite of following up for the last two years.”

The government would have furnished the details if the NCST had used the Right to Information (RTI) Act, he added.

Consider this: In various RTI replies obtained by the Akhil Gujarat College and University Adivasi Teachers’ Association, concerning the ST seats filled up in six universities across the state, every varsity has reported a major gap in the ST seat fulfillment.

The data was obtained for Bhavnagar University, Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University, Patan; Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar; Vir Narmad University, Surat; Saurashtra University, Rajkot and Gujarat Vidhyapith, Ahmedabad.

Kishore Chaudhari, secretary of the association, said that similar applications under the RTI were filed for Gujarat University, Ahmedabad; M S University, Vadodara; Krantiguru Shayamji Krishna Verma Kutch University and Anand Agricultural University.

“But these (information) were denied either on the pretext of discrepancies in the ‘Roaster Register’ or the non-availability of it,” he added.

The association, which has compiled and published the data in its newsletter Adivasi Chetna (see box), added that even some universities of the six that replied to the RTI applications, furnished only partial data.

“Gujarat Vidhyapith gave the ST seat status only for lecturers, and not for readers and professors,” Chaudhari said.

The association has submitted these figures to the NCST as well and had apprised Somavat of the situation prevailing in Gujarat, on his last visit to Ahmedabad, with regard to the ST reservation, officials added.