Tags:
Journalism of Courage
PATIALA, Sept 14: Battlelines have been drawn for the elections to the Punjabi University Teachers8217; Association PUTA, scheduled for September 16, with the two contenders 8212; United Teachers Front UTF and Teachers United Front TUF 8212; busy in hectic campaigning in support of their candidates.
Victimisation has emerged as the key issue on which both the groups are fighting the elections as the other demands being raised by them are common.
Both the groups have brought out pamphlets joining issue with one another. The UTF has brought out a small paper on the activities of certain leaders of TUF. The UTF pamphlet makes a scathing attack on the role of certain, four to be precise, leaders of the rival group who are now in the fray. It has accused them of getting undue favours from the previous V-C.
In a frontal attack on Dr K.C. Singhal, who has been fielded by the TUF for presidentship, the UTF has alleged that he, instead of raising his voice against the university decision to debar two senior teachers of the Business Management Department, gladly accepted the headship of this department. It has defended the action of the two debarred teachers 8212; Dr Gurdeep Singh, who incidentally is the UTF candidate for presidentship, and Dr M.S. Bedi 8212; saying they had recorded their dissent in the matter of selection of the son of the university Registrar as a lecturer.
It has accused Prof Sucha Singh Gill of the Department of Economics, a senior TUF leader, of having manhandled and humiliated Prof Nirmal Singh Azad of the same department on the campus. Likewise, the UTF has said that another candidate fielded by TUF, Lakhwinder Singh, who also happens to be a brother of Dr Sucha Singh Gill, had got a record 15 advance increments on his joining the university as a lecturer.
The UTF has announced that the rival group enjoyed power during the tenure of Dr J.S. Puar and though wielding administrative power at that time did nothing for the welfare of the teaching community on the campus.
In a strong rebuttal of the charges levelled in the UTF pamphlet, Dr S.S. Joshi, leader of the TUF, told ENS that the rival group had stooped to character assassination, which was at best avoided in an institution of academic pursuits.
About Dr K.C. Singhal joining as head of the Department of Business Management following debarring of Dr Gurdeep Singh and Dr M.S. Bedi, Dr Joshi said it was a Syndicate order which Dr Singhal could not defy as if he had not joined as head, he would have invited disciplinary action.
Dr Joshi said the rival group, while projecting itself as a champion of the teachers8217; cause, had played a key and pivotal role in having a Vigilance inquiry initiated against some faculty members. So much so that even that before the teachers, including himself, being held guilty by a court of law, the group had demanded their dismissal.
Citing another instance, he said the UTF leaders had sought and got sack of the ad hoc teachers. These teachers, most of whom had put in a service of up to eight to nine years, had now been reinstated by a court order. He said he wondered how the UTF could claim itself to be championing the cause of teachers.
Dr Joshi said the recent appointments gave an impression that the UTF was being favoured by the university administration. In this context, he made a mention of Dr S.S. Khaira8217;s appointment as director of the Audio Visual Research Centre, Dr D.S. Dhillon8217;s appointment as Dean Students, and the appointment of the wife of Dr Kehar Singh, now chairman of the Punjab School Education Board, as a teacher in the university model school.
Both the groups have, however, promised to take up certain common demands, including parity in open and merit promotion teachers, immediate payment of arrears in view of the revision of pay-scales and restoration of dignity of teachers.
