The Utkal University Teachers’ Association (UUTA) started functioning from Saturday with new office-bearers and executive members from its office in the Faculty Club premises of the university.
The UUTA is a collective of the teachers registered since 1993 to represent the university faculty members in different forums. In the past, the UUTA has been instrumental in a State-wide legal struggle of university teachers against the amendment made by the State Higher Education Department. It is a member organisation of the Federation of Odisha University Teachers’ Associations (FOUTA) and Joint Action Committee of University Teachers in the State.
The UUTA elections could not be held during last two years because of the Covid-19 crisis.
The new office-bearers expressed their concern over the inequality in the service conditions of university teachers under the Odisha Government compared to other States’ and Central universities. They said the UUTA would continue its struggle to get the retirement age of university faculty members enhanced to 65 years.
The following members have been elected for various posts as mentioned against their names.
The elected UUTA office-bearers are Kunja Bihari Panda, president; Kabir Mohan Sethy, vice-president; Siba Sankar Mohanty, secretary; Sudhakar Jally, joint secretary; Satya Narayan Pal, treasurer. Their and the Faculty Club’s tenure will be for one year or till the next elections.