LIT: Candidates to submit 200-pg application, fees again

Nagpur: The Nagpur University (NU) has failed to waive application fee of Rs500 for candidates applying again for the 17 LIT teaching positions. Instead it made them send approximately 200-page application sets again though it had exempted such applicants in 2013. NU had published the advertisement on January 25 following rap from Nagpur bench of Bombay high court.
The last date for application was February 15 but it is not yet known how many applications were received by NU. Officials said the number could be high since all are full-time positions at the premier institute. In September last year, over 700 had applied for 92 contractual posts including two for LIT advertised by the university.

VC SP Kane and acting registrar Neeraj Khaty, who is also an applicant, didn’t answer TOI’s calls. They also didn’t respond to detailed questionnaire mailed on their official email IDs.

Applicants who had applied in March 2017 told TOI there was no mention of refund or exemption of Rs500 or Rs300 (for reserved category) for those applying for Laxminarayan Institute of Technology in the latest notice. The previous recruitment process was called off after government asked NU to revise the proposal.

They complained that beside charging second-time applicants, 11 sets of applications made it a costly and cumbersome affair for them. “Applicants who acquired additional qualifications and experience during the lapsed period could have been asked to submit certificates or proof related to only that this time. What did the university do with our previous applications and copies of educational certificates and the fee?” they said.

The application form itself is of 10-page which makes it 110 pages. Attaching just basic qualifications certificates such as SSC, HSC, UG, PG and Phd will take the total number of pages in the application to 209. “Governments are promoting paperless transactions but, it seems, NU doesn’t want to go green,” said an applicant. The final application sets become more voluminous as candidates would also be submitting testimonials and other certificates.

Another applicant said not just this time, but also in other recruitment drives the university calls for multiple sets of applications which should be avoided amid heightened concerns for environment.

In 2017, the Nagpur University had received over 2,000 applications for 63 posts of assistant professors, associate professors and professors advertised to fill up vacancies at its departments but those were never called for interviews.

In February 2013, NU had reissued an advertisement inviting applications for 32 vacant posts of professors, associate and assistant professors at LIT. Former registrar Ashok Gomashe had said, “Those who had applied earlier have to make fresh applications as there is every possibility they acquired additional qualifications and experience. But they will be exempted from payment of registration fee of Rs 500.”