Imphal, December 05: The Part-time Teachers (DPC '95) Association has stressed that the issue of appointment of MPSC recommended candidates for college lectureship has no connection with the regularization of 108 part-time lecturers.

A statement issued by the association said the part-time lecturers also morally supported the demand for early appointment of the MPSC recommended candidates.

It pointed out that as per the state policy framed in November 1999 50% of resultant vacant posts are to be reserved for regularization of part-time lecturers and 50% was to be directly recruited through MPSC.

It said the members of the association were regularized against 50% of resultant posts that arose after the MPSC advertisement of no 2/98-99 dated November 21,1998, and against 32 posts returned by the MPSC due to unavailability of proper candidates.

The statement also denied that the members of the association were appointed through the back door, pointing out that they were recruited in late 1995 under advertisement no 3/45/83-EDC (pt II) dated 8 June 1995, through a written test held on September 2,1995, and subsequent viva voce held in the first week of October 1995.The recruitment was strictly held under the MPSC's recruitment rules and syllabus which existed at that time, the statement maintained.

The statement further contended that the state policy for retention and regularization of part-timers was made through a series of sittings of a committee of officials and a consultative committee of the government, headed by the chief secretary, and was approved by the then state cabinet.

Hence there is no question of back door preparation of the state policy, and it is legally and constitutionally viable, the statement argued.

In the meantime, the Federation of College Teachers has urged the Manipur University authorities for relaxation of UGC RRs and norms for recruitment of college teachers for colleges affiliated to the MU.

In a representation addressed to the University vice chancellor, the Federation pointed out that an essential requirement as per the 1998 recruitment rules for appointment of college lecturers was passing of a state level eligibility test, SLET, or the JRF/NET conducted by the UGC/CSIR.

While the SLET cannot be conducted by the state government due to lack of infrastructure, during the last decade, Manipur has produced only around 100 JRF/NET certificate holders, most of them in Manipuri.

Only such a handful will not be adequate to man the various posts of teachers in all the colleges of Manipur, the statement argued.

The action of Manipur University in granting affiliation to colleges manned by unqualified lecturers has reaffirmed this ground reality, it said.

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