Recruitment of teaching, non-teaching staff in varsities put on hold after Governor’s letter

The instruction from the office of Governor of Maharashtra came in a letter dated November 26 which is addressed to vice chancellors of all state universities.

Stating that the Governor’s office has received various proposals regarding appointment of chancellor’s nominees on the selection committees for appointment of university teachers, the letter states, “Considering the Model Code of Conduct, the aforesaid proposals are kept in abeyance.”

It further instructs to keep on hold the process of selection and appointment of teaching and non-teaching cadre of the university till further order.

An official from the Mumbai University explained, “For any appointment, a selection committee is formed which includes an individual nominated by the Governor in his capacity as Chancellor to all State Universities. Following advertisements of recruitment, universities may have approached the office of Governor for this nomination which they have kept on hold. Without having a complete selection panel, the recruitment process cannot proceed.”

In many universities, advertisements for recruitment were out in the past few months.

“The process of recruitment was announced after a long delay. Thanks to this, many vacant positions of teaching and non-teaching staff, including a few key administrative positions such as deans of few faculties were going to be filled in this process, after a long wait. But now with the new instructions, the process is further delayed,” said a senior teacher.

According to university officials there could only be a slight delay in the process as the new state government is currently in making.

But the mention of “model code of conduct” in the letter has led few to raise concerns.

A teacher said, “Model Code of Conduct is applicable during elections. But now not only is the election process over, the letter from the office of governor is dated days after the election result was out on November 23. Furthermore, while asking to put the recruitment process on hold, the letter does not provide clarity on the timeline. All these lead us to question if the government will continue with the recruitment process or not.”