The police arrested members of the Ph.D Holders Association on Sunday when they were proceeding to meet the Governor to return their degrees as a protest measure. They were prevented by the police at Cheer Bagh area of the Army Cantonment.
The Sub Divisional Magistrate, lalit Narayan Mishra, asked the association to suspend their march and assured them that their memorandum would be sent to the Governor. The members of the association, however, were adamant on the march to the Rajbhavan. On the orders of Mishra, the police then arrested the Ph.D holders and took them to the police lines. The members were later released by the police.
The president of the Garhwal division of the association, Devendra Rawat said that the Ph.D holders are forced to take the step of returning their degrees due to the nonchalant attitude of the State Government. He blamed the Government for doing injustice to the Ph.D holders and engaging in unwarranted oppression. Rawat said that the State Government could have allowed the pre-2009 qualified Ph.D holders to be eligible for recruitment as Assistant Professors in the colleges like the State of Haryana. He said that the insensitive attitude of the Higher Education Minister, Indira Hridayesh would prove detrimental to the State Government. The Media in charge of the association, Virendra Barthwal said about 8000 Ph.D holders in the State are affected by the decision of the State Government.
The members of the association are particularly agitated by the decision of the State Government which prevented the Pre-2009 Ph.D qualified candidates from participating in the interviews for the guest faculty in the Government colleges. The higher education department had recently appointed the guest lecturers in 681 vacant teaching posts in the Government colleges.
The demand of the association is not pleasing the higher education department officers. One of the senior officers of the department said that the department is only following the directive of University Grants Commission (UGC) in allowing only the National Eligibility Test (NET) or State Eligibility Test (SET) qualified candidates for being assistant Professors in the colleges of the State.