Ludhiana: Guest faculty Assistant professors sat on Tuesday. protest against State Govt As new teachers took over. Assistant Professors Long-serving assistant professors protesting in government colleges across the state fear their jobs are now at stake.
The protesters raised slogans against the government from 9 am to 2.30 pm on Tuesday under the banner of Guest Faculty United Front.
The affected professors, some of whom are nearing retirement, are questioning the current government’s stance. He maintains that he has no objection to the induction of 1158 professors but is against the government’s policy of appointing these new professors in their place. He said that we have given many years of our life to these colleges and have guided the students in every sphere of life.
“We are working on meager salaries and when it is time for us to get decent salaries, the government is showing us the way out. We have spent most of our lives in struggle,” said Geetika Verma, who has been teaching linguistics at SCD Government College for the past eight years.
Nidhi, another guest faculty assistant professor, who has been teaching commerce for the past six years, said: “Inducting new professors against sanctioned posts will affect the guest faculty. The government is ignoring the guest faculty. who have been serving for a long time. We have fallen. Our jobs are being taken away.
If the present government does not provide us security and decent salaries, our struggle will be carried out on a large scale. We want to secure our jobs till the age of retirement,” said Prof. Baljinder, another protester.
The previous government had filled 1,158 vacant posts of professors and librarians in 2021. It is alleged that the recruitment drive was riddled with irregularities and raised many eyebrows as it was completed within 45 days. Several petitions against the recruitments were filed in the High Court. Consequently, the court quashed the recruitment notification holding that it was invalid. Reacting to this, 1,158 elected professors pressed the government to place their case before a double bench. The government then filed an LPA in the High Court on behalf of these candidates against the Single Bench judgment. The double bench set aside the single bench judgment and allowed the government to complete the recruitment drive. The situation became tense when these newly appointed professors were allotted workstations of guest faculty teachers and that too at midnight hours.