ATSUM questions recruitment process

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 4: The ATSUM has questioned the alleged unethical and illogical recruitment of guest faculties at Manipur University.
A spectre of private fiefdom is haunting the recruitment and selection process of guest faculties in various departments of Manipur University besides gross violation of the selection norms of the University Grants Commission, said a press release issued by ATSUM general secretary Seiboi Haokip.
Constitution of board of members for the selection committee in respect of Department of Political Science was done in utter disregard of the established rules and practices, it alleged. 
As per the convention, the ‘expert’ should be a faculty not below the rank of a full-fledged Professor but the so-called ‘expert’ Dhruba Pratim Sharma, a faculty in the Department of Political Science, Guwahati University is an Associate Professor, whereas rules of universities provide that only Professor should be nominated as external subject expert.
The selection committee which was constituted to conduct interview for guest faculty in Political Science on August 25 was against the UGC guidelines and ethics, it decried.
ATSUM alleged that the selection committee was constituted whimsically and interview was held just to select those candidates who are personally close to the Head of the Department. At least a candidate from the Schedule Tribe community should have been selected as social science is the traditional forte of ST candidates. This act could have balanced the dismal representation of less than 3 percent of ST out of 7.5 percent reserved seats in faculty positions, it lamented.
Questioning the sanctity of the institution, it wondered as to why not a single post is given to ST candidates despite some candidates getting enviably high academic score.
The matter was placed before the Administrator of the university on September 7 to nullify the recruitment but no action has been taken so far, ATSUM decried.
It also demanded resignation of the Head of Department of Political Science on moral grounds for allegedly manipulating the selection process.
ATSUM strongly condemns the culture of Manipur University where few authorities and teaching faculties see the university as their fiefdom in order to achieve their ill objectives, it said. The authority concerned should rectify the matter at the earliest failing which ATSUM would be compelled to resort to various forms of agitation, it added.