MADURAI: Despite being qualified and having met the eligibility criteria nearly three years ago, promotions have continued to elude around 100 faculty members of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), thanks to the alleged inaction of the authorities.
This lack of promotions under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS)-2022 is giving anxious moments to the aggrieved faculty members, who had staged a protest and made several representations that met with little success.
According to university sources, the delay in promotions is causing frustration among the affected faculty, many of whom have completed the required minimum years of service, academic qualifications, research contributions, and performance assessments mandated under the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.
Speaking to TNIE, Madurai Kamaraj University Faculty Association (MUFA) general secretary Prof C Muniyandi said, “CAS-2022 was officially notified on December 16, 2023, and interviews were held under the then Vice-Chancellor J Kumar on February 12, 13 and March 5, 2024.
A total of 89 eligible candidates participated in the process. But till now, no communication has been received from the authorities,” he said.
He said MUFA has made repeated efforts to seek clarity including several representation letters to E Sundaravalli, the chairperson of the university’s convener committee. However, no official update has been issued to the candidates. “On behalf of MUFA members, we recently staged a protest inside the Registrar’s office. But even that ended in vain,” he added.
“Earlier CAS-2017 and CAS-2020 promotion cycles were completed, and over 100 faculty members got their promotions and associated monetary benefits. However, allegations of irregularities and procedural violations had come to light. Hence, D Karthikeyan, the then Principal Secretary to the Higher Education Department, constituted a high-level committee to probe the alleged violations,” said a senior professor of MKU.
“The high-level committee – comprising Coimbatore Region Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education V Kalaiselvi, Triuchy Region Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education A Gunasekaran, Dharmapuri Region Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education Office’s Assistant Director A Ravindran and Thanjavur Region Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education Office’s Assistant Director K Kowdalyan – probed the violations, and submitted its recommendations. But till now the authorities haven’t implemented the recommendations,” he added.
“It is unacceptable that even after a formal government-ordered inquiry and submission of recommendations, there has been no action. But CAS-2022 candidates are on the receiving end of this inaction,” said a senior faculty member who took part in the February 2024 interviews.
On the condition of anonymity, an official from the MKU said that authorities have decided to implement the recommendations of the high-level committee.
“As per the high-level committee recommendations, the majority of the candidates’ promotions (CAS-2017 and CAS-2020) are under lens for norm violations. Of these, a few of them continuously receive promotions by violating UGC norms. Hence, eligible candidates (CAS-2022) will get their promotions only after the MKU finance committee’s approval,” he said.
The CAS-2022 faculty members are saying that the probe into the alleged irregularities in CAS-2017 and CAS-2020 promotions should not get in the way of their career progression.
“Let the officials probe the norm violations in CAS-2017 and CAS-2020 promotions, why should we (CAS-2022) bear the brunt of it?”