The Utkal University Teachers’ Association (UUTA) has expressed grave concern as the university is facing a manpower crunch with almost 50 per cent of the teaching staff positions lying vacant and the court staying further recruitments.
In a Press release on Thursday, the UUTA said, “Nearly one-third of the sanctioned faculty strength of the university was abolished earlier in 2004 due to financial crisis with the State Government then. The gap thus created at that time was never bridged. Currently, only around 150 faculty members are serving the university against the sanctioned strength of nearly 300. With the current stay on recruitments and the superannuation of so many faculty members in last one year alone, the university may face problems in academic delivery in coming years. It is therefore necessary that the university administration takes proactive steps in addressing the issue of recruitment.”
Meanwhile, the UUTA on Thursday celebrated its Platinum Jubilee year by felicitating 13 professors who superannuated between June 2017 and June 2018. They included Prof J Patel (Department of Mathematics), Prof JK Parida (Department of Commerce), Prof HS Mohapatra (Department of English), Prof KK Basa (Department of Anthropology), Prof Salila Dutta (Department of Mathematics), Prof KC Das (Department of library Science), Prof Ranjan K Bal (Department of Commerce), Prof Susmit P Pani (Department of History and Director DDCE), Prof Prafulla K Mohanty (Department of Zoology), Prof Madhumita Dash (Department of Geology), Prof PK Chand (Department of Botany), Dr SAK Azad (University law College), Dr Kalyani Mohanty (Department of PMIR) and Prof Pratibha Manjari Rath (Department of Sanskrit).
Vice-Chancellor Prof SM Patnaik addressed the meeting. UUTA secretary Professor Kunja Behari Panda offered a vote of thanks.