Imphal, February 21: The All Manipur Government College Teachers' Association (AMGCTA) has demanded the Government of Manipur to either appoint regular Principals of the Government colleges or follow the directives of the Supreme Court at the time of appointment of Principal-in-charges.

Addressing a press conference in this connection at Press Club here today, Association president H Rajendra pointed out that a big hurdle is being caused in the effort towards improvement of the education system in the State as there are no regular Principals in many colleges under the Government of Manipur.

Regular Principals of the colleges were then appointed by the MPSC directly.

However, after the MPSC was unable to make direct appointment of the regular Principals, the Government has been appointing Principals-in-charge to run the colleges.

Instead of following the directives of the Supreme Court and the High Courts laid down in connection with appointment of Principals-in-charge, the State Government has been simply appointing any teacher to the post, Rajendra charged.

In accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court and the High Court, the senior most teacher has to be considered at the time of appointment of Principal in-charge.

However, instead of following this directive, the State Govet has been appointing Principal-in-charge without any specific criteria or the basis of seniority.

As a consequence, many teachers who have been in the service for a long time are feeling neglected and slighted.

This may have an impact on the education of the students, Rajendra noted.

So, the State Government should either make necessary arrangements for appointment of regular Principals at the earliest or follow the directives of the Supreme Court's order with appointment of principal in-charges, Rajendra demanded.

Speaking about other problems being faced by the Government college teachers in Manipur, Association general secretary Sarangajit Khundrakpam pointed out that in Government colleges of other States, the composite schemes of the UGC are being implemented.

Among these composite schemes, the age of retirement of the college teachers has been raised to 62 years.

However, in Manipur it is fixed still at 59 years.

So many of the college teachers in Manipur are getting retirement from service without completing the prescribed age limit of the UGC, he lamented, adding that this is the failure of the State Govt to give an objective view.

The matter has already been brought to the notice of the Govt of Manipur through various representations.

But so far no conscious attempt have been made to translate the same into action, he rued.

All Manipur Govt College Teachers' Association has also made it clear that it would extend full support to any move taken up by the All Manipur College Association in connection with the cited problems.

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