Applicants who were interviewed by Delhi University (DU) colleges for appointments to permanent teaching posts in 2015, 2016 and 2017 have subsequently alleged that neither did they get any jobs nor is the university returning the money they deposited as recruitment application fee.
Ram Parevsh Shah, an applicant doing Ph.D at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), told The Sunday Guardian: “I submitted almost Rs 11,000 as recruitment application fee, hoping that I will get a permanent faculty post in one of the DU colleges, but two years have passed and nothing has happened in this direction. I am still waiting to get either an appointment call or return of my money.” “Unfortunately, the insensitive DU administration called for fresh applications in 2016 and 2017 and I had to again pay Rs 6,000 as recruitment application fee. However, the process of appointments has again been stopped and the reason has not been disclosed by DU,” Shah said.
Avinash Kumar, another applicant and Ph.D student from JNU, told The Sunday Guardian, “The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), University Grants Commission (UGC) and the DU administration have all contributed to the delay in the appointments process. Every year, these three institutions come up with a new set of recruitment norms and this causes delay in appointments. I submitted Rs 8,000 as recruitment application fee and if I am not offered a job, the DU should refund my money.”
“The problem of faculty shortage in Indian universities is growing day by day, but the MHRD is not at all serious about taking any steps to prevent such a crisis scenario,” Kumar said. On the condition of anonymity, another applicant from the DU told The Sunday Guardian: “It has been almost five years that I have been working in the capacity of an ad hoc (temporary) teacher in DU and now my frustration level has gone up. Like many other colleagues, I submitted Rs 16,000 within one year in 2017 recruitment application fee, but the university has stopped permanent appointments, the reason this time being the revised UGC appointment rules. I can’t even take part in any protest for getting my fee refunded as I fear that the college where I am teaching temporarily might kick me out.” However, DU officials say that appointments of academic staff in institutions of higher education across the country have been stopped after the UGC recently asked all Central universities, state universities and deemed universities receiving grant-in-aid from the government or the UGC and inter-university centres, to postpone the process.