Implement All National Education Policies Without Discrimination : FEGOCTA

Imphal, August 7, 2014:

Some of the objectives of National Education Policy/Scheme under UGC Regulations, 2010 are to attract and retain talented educated youth in teaching profession, to encourage research in higher educational institutions, for economic development and creation of knowledge society in India. Under this national policy centre provides payment of arrears to the university and college teachers all over India from 1-1-2006 to 31-3-2010 and 80% reimbursement for this period to the state governments.

With these objectives and taking the opportunity, 28 out of 29 states including Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim have implemented this national education policy. Now Manipur is the only state in India not implementing this national policy and also was the last state to provide UGC revised scales to college teachers. Neglecting this national education policy Manipur government gave arrears from 1-11-2010 only to the government college teachers; 13 months gaps from other employees who got arrears from 1-10-2009 and four years and ten months from their counter-parts in other states of India in the new pay revision.

151 government college teachers filed Writ Petition(Civil) No. 407 of 2014 to the High Court of Manipur on 9 June, 2014 praying to direct the government of Manipur to implement the new pay revision of government college teachers from 1-10-2009 at par with the other employees of state government. After failure to respond at the first notice, on 23rd July, 2014 the government advocate seeks three weeks time to respond to the Writ Petition.

The Writ Petition is the last resort after the state government’s failure to act on the matter despite repeated requests. Federation of Government College Teachers’ Association, Manipur FEGOCTA) supports the legal course of action against this discrimination as it does not want to disturb academic atmosphere by calling strikes. Advocate Dr. R.K. Deepak Singh represents government college teachers to the High Court of Manipur.

FEGOCTA welcomes the proactive role of the government to become one of the first states to implement another national education scheme RUSA, 2013, which involves construction and recruitment. On the failure to implement national education policy, 2010 of granting arrears from 1-1-2006 to 31-10-2010 by state government raises question; is it because it does not involve construction and recruitment? As demanded earlier, FEGOCTA requests government of Manipur to implement this national education policy, 2010 at the earliest. FEGOCTA has decided to take up the matter with Union Human Resource Minister and political parties.

The inclusion of para that AGP (Academic Grade Pay) shall not be equated with GP (Grade Pay) for whatsoever any purpose in Orders of the government of Manipur dated 12 August, 2011 is arbitrary. It resulted to the denial of SCA and TA to the government college teachers since new pay revision i.e. 1-11-2010 (over 44 months). It violates of UGC Regulations, 2010 which provides that AGP(Academic Grade Pay) shall be provided to all the college and university teachers in India. Government should release SCA and TA of the college teachers without further delay as demanded by FEGOCTA.

For proper implementation of national educational policies and good higher education governance, government should implement FEGOCTA’s demand to appoint Regular Principals, full time Regular Director and to constitute State Higher Education Service. FEGOCTA organized One Day National Seminar on UGC Regulations on Academic Performance Indicator(API) on 10 March, 2010 at Imphal College in collaboration with Imphal College and N.G. College, Imphal. Based on the recommendations of National Seminar on API, FEGOCTA demands to re-advertise the posts of regular Principals by reviewing API score of 400 for a specific period considering the local conditions in Manipur.

Assam government’ has adopted API score of 160 for direct recruitment of the Principals. The government should first issue Orders for the implementation of API for direct recruitment of Principals and uniform format for all the candidates and follow the procedures as per new UGC Regulations in transparent manner. Government should create the posts of the Professors in the colleges as demanded earlier. No promotion of the college teachers in the last three/four years arbitrarily is demoralizing. The government should process and make promotion of all the eligible teachers under UGC Regulations 2000 as demanded by FEGOCTA. API cannot be implemented till the issue of the Orders by the state government for the same.

(Dr. N. Somorendro Singh)
General Secretary,
FEGOCTA - Federation of Government College Teachers’ Associations, Manipur