DAV hires 85 teachers, gives no appointment letters

Express News Service: Wed Nov 17 2010,

Chandigarh : DAV College, Sector 10, has hired 85 teachers in this academic year without issuing them appointment letters. The lecturers, teaching graduate and postgraduate courses, are supposed to receive consolidated salaries prescribed by the government, but allegedly do not.

The college has been mired in controversy for over two months now. Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the suspension of the college principal, Dr B C Josan, by the management for alleged irregularities, pending the hearing on his petition.

In response to a query filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act about the hiring of lecturers on contract during 2010-11, Dr Josan said, “No appointment letters have been issued to such teachers.”

Josan furnished a list of these teachers. He said this was a practice followed at the college for many years, and lecturers are issued experience certificates when they leave. The college has around 150 regular teachers in addition to these 85 ‘contracted’ lecturers.

RTI activist Dr Rajinder K Singla had sought details of the appointment of teachers whose salaries were not covered under the 95 per cent grant-in-aid from the government. Singla’s query revealed that the teachers are teaching English, Commerce, Geography, Chemistry, Mathematics, History, Punjabi, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics and Zoology at the college.

As per UGC guidelines of June 28, 2010, a lecturer must be paid in the scale of Rs 25,800, but these 85 lecturers are allegedly being paid salaries ranging from as low as Rs 12,000, up to Rs 25,000.

One of the teachers appointed on “contract” at the college said he drew Rs 12,000 per month. “Since I cannot do without the job, I did not demand even the prescribed salary. I cannot prove my appointment since no appointment letter was issued to me,” he said. “There are several contractual teachers who get about Rs 25,000 per month,” he added.

As per the Panjab University Calendar, the appointment of every lecturer in an affiliated college must be approved by the Vice-Chancellor. Sources at the college alleged that several teachers were appointed without even an interview.