The All Odisha University Teachers’ Association (AOUTA) on Saturday urged the State Government to extend their retirement age from the present 60 years to 65 years as recommended by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
AOUTA president Dr Bibudha Parashar told a news conference here that the demand for hike in the university teachers’ superannuation age has gained momentum after the State Government enhanced the retirement age of its employees with effect from June 30.
AOUTA leaders also expressed their concern over the partial implementation of the Revised Pay Packages, 2006 for the State’s university teachers depriving them of their legitimate benefits recommended by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the UGC, the ICAR and the AICTE and discriminating them against the rest of their counterparts in the country.
Dr Parashar further said a candidate is appointed as a university teacher at an age of 35 years having qualification of PhD and NET examinations. Thus, the service tenure of the teacher gets squeezed when he retires at the age of 60 years.
As such, there is a loss of expert and experienced manpower whose service could have been utilised for a relatively longer period of time, he added.
Prof Pratap Rath from the Utkal University said the Odisha Government is yet to follow the 65-year retirement age trend unlike other States, as a result of which there is scarcity of teachers in all universities affecting higher education in the State. The university teachers also demanded implementation of the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) at the earliest.
“If Government fails to fulfil our longstanding demand, a delegation of the association will meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on August 15 and discuss about the issue with him,” Dr Parashar said.
Many teachers from the Utkal, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Fakir Mohan and North Odisha Universities, the Utkal University of Culture, Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology and Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology attended the conference held at the OUAT.