NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration has refuted the claims regarding SC/ST quota made by the JNU Teacher’s Association (JNUTA) in its recently drafted letter to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD).
On Wednesday, the JNU administration stated that the letter was sent by some teachers to "tarnish the image of the university". "The JNU administration strongly denies that it has undermined the national policy of SC/ST reservation in the matter of faculty recruitment. The JNU administration asserts that it has duly compiled with the applicable reservation rules of Government of India," JNU registrar Pramod Kumar said in a statement.
The Association had written to MHRD Secretary Amit Khare on Friday alleging that the JNU administration had illegally de-reserved several professor and associate professor posts that had been earlier earmarked as reserved for SC/ST candidates.
However, Kumar has stated that no teaching posts were de-reserved and the reservation for SC/ST was given as per their share within the available vacant teaching post.
"The university is committed to make sure that the applicable SC/ST reservations are strictly implemented in the faculty requirements… The university has an SC/ST cell which prepares the roster of vacant positions comprising staff and officers of reserved category. The cell is always headed by a Group A officer who belongs to a SC ST category," Kumar has underlined in the statement.
The JNUTA had said that 85 positions remained unfilled and therefore constituted backlog vacancies reserved for SCs & STs. It had demanded an inquiry stating that if all advertised posts, including the reserved category were to be filled, the proportion of SCs and STs in the professor and associate professor cadres would be well below the statutory requirement.
The registrar has further stated that the JNUTA, has instead of getting the concerns addressed, rushed to media and damaged the reputation of university and their demand would halt filling the reserved category seats on a priority basis.