BHUBANESWAR:
Odia professor posts in five of the eight
state-run universities are lying vacant, state higher education minister
Ananta Das informed here in a written reply to the state assembly on Thursday.
Replying to a query of Rourkela MLA
Dilip Ray, the higher education minister said there was not a single professor in the Odia departments in Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, FM University, Balasore,
GM University, Sambalpur,
Ravenshaw University, Cuttack and RD Women’s university Bhubaneswar.
The Odia departments in GM University and RD Women’s university are running without any faculty members as all seven each teaching posts in both the institutions are lying vacant, the minister said.
“The universities have been asked to take necessary steps to fill up the vacant faculty positions in the Odia departments,” Das added.
As parts of its effort to promote Odia language, the state government has recently announced to increase PhD seats in government universities and special incentives to encourage research in Odia. It also announced to waive tuition fees for students pursuing Odia course in graduation and post-graduation level in government colleges and universities.
The opposition parties slammed the state government over large scale vacancies and poor infrastructure in higher education sector. Participating in the discussion, leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra said the chief minister has not been awarded for his competitiveness but for his inefficiency in every field.
BJP leader Rabi Naik also because of the inefficiency of the state government, the youths of the states are suffering.
Responding to the adjournment debate, the higher education minister said of the total sanctioned strength of 2306 teaching posts in various degree colleges, as many as 1296 people are working. In Universities, of the total strength of 1218 teaching posts of various ranks, only 662 posts are filled up.
