Promotion order irks JU teachers

Teachers of Jadavpur University have written to the education secretary to protest an order asking the university not to process the career advancement scheme (CAS) for the teachers.

Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) wrote on Wednesday that the order issued on Tuesday by the education department amounts to curbing “the institutional autonomy”.

“….JUTA feels that such unilateral action to stop CAS by the state government is an attempt to curb the institutional autonomy,” says the letter signed by Partha Pratim Roy, the general secretary of the association.

Roy told Metro: “The promotion under CAS is a continuous process of evaluation of the academic performance of teachers.... How can the department stop it?”

A JU official said the department had written in the order that Section 3(1) of the West Bengal Universities (Control of Expenditure) Act, 1976, would be violated if teachers are promoted under the scheme.

The act says no state-aided university will increase the pay or allowances attached to any post without the prior permission of the state government.

“This interpretation is wrong because the promotion does not mean increasing
the pay or allowances,” said Roy.

Calcutta University has implemented the promotion scheme after taking legal opinion.

The JU teachers have said they would be forced to adopt “the path of non-cooperation and agitation” if the department does not withdraw the order.

The letter from the teachers says the issue of violation of the UGC Regulation 2018 by the university, which has also been referred to in the order, is irrelevant because the state government has not yet accepted the regulation.

JU’s interim vice-chancellor Bhaskar Gupta and registrar Snehamanju Basu went to Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the education department, to resolve the stalemate over the implementation of the promotion scheme on Wednesday afternoon.

“There was some confusion which was cleared at the meeting,” said VC Gupta.