Acute shortage of employees has created serious problems for the administrative departments of the Sambalpur University. The jobs like normal administration, conducting regular examinations and other activities have been directly affected due to shortage of staff.
The university was started with 50 colleges in 1967, and after 50 years, the strength of the colleges and various institutions has reached 240. The university comprises 40 sections for its administrative work and 25 post graduate sections have virtually been facing acute administrative problems.
The university had sanctioned post of 675. In 1985 some of the permanent posts were abolished and its strength reduced to 601. Later, it was reduced to below 300 and at present only 57 employees are managing the work of 160 senior assistants. Only 22 section officers (SO) are managing 40 departments.
According to University Employees’ Union sources, 27 non-teaching staff will be retiring during this year end. Preparation of mark sheets after publication of examination results, providing migration certificates are the greatest hurdles for the employees. In some of the departments only one employee each are managing the entire departmental work.
The employees’ union on many occasions has submitted memorandums to the Vice-Chancellor and the State Government to fill up posts but they alleged that no action has been initiated. The union leaders alleged that in 2013 although there was a green signal to fill the vacant posts, but no final approval was given. Recently, the State Government has sanctioned 41 posts of junior assistants through Staff Selection Board (SSB) which was opposed by the employees’ union stating that it will violate the norms of the university. The union had observed token strike against such an order.
The authorities of Sambalpur University have expressed their unwillingness to conduct all the examinations of the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Science and Research (VIMSAR), Burla, due to shortage of staff and requested its Director to conduct their own examinations from 2018.
Controller of Examinations Suryanarayan Nayak in a letter to the Director, VIMSAR said, “Now due to shortage of manpower, it has been difficult on the part of the university to conduct the different examinations of your institute henceforth. You are, therefore requested to kindly take appropriate action for conducting all professional MBBS and PG examinations in VIMSAR from the next academic year 2018.”
“It is not possible to conduct MBBS examination of 150 students and 70 PG students every year from first year to final year,” said a senior assistant and leader of the university employees’ union Mahendra Mishra.