Over 700 teacher posts are lying vacant in 11 universities of the State, Higher Education Minister Anata Das informed the House on Thursday on a question by Member Dilip Ray.
Das said highest 170 teacher posts are vacant in the Ravenshaw University, while in Utkal University, 77, Berhampur University, 67, Sambalpur University, 46, North Orissa University, 12, Fakir Mohan University, 10, and in the Shree Jagannath Sanskrit University, 22 teacher posts are lying vacant.
Similarly, the Minister revealed that in the new universities like the Rama Devi, GM and Khallikote , only 21, 67 and 42 teacher posts have been created. For the Rama Devi and GM, 221 non teaching posts have been created, the Minister said.
While in the Utkal University highest 543 non teaching posts are vacant, in the Sambalput University, 316, in Berhampur, 191, Ravenshaw, 44, North Orisssa, 47, Fakir Mohan, 19 and Shree Jagannath , 26 non teaching posts are vacant. Besides, for the State Open University, which was established in 2015, no teacher post has been created, Das told.
Ray expressed strong displeasure at the large numbers of vacancies in teaching and non teaching posts not just in the universities, but in schools and colleges across the State which have affected academic ambience and hindered teaching and research and also led to failure of the Odia students in the all -India exams.