Coimbatore: Bharathiar University faculty members protest delay in issuing promotion orders

COIMBATORE: A section of teachers with the Bharathiar University staged a protest at the registrar’s office on Thursday against withholding promotion orders of the faculty members who joined the service since 2005.
The teachers demanded the higher education department to issue the long-pending promotion orders. Following the protest, higher education secretary D Karthikeyan assured the teachers that they would be promoted soon.
One of the faculty members told TOI that 46 faculty members, who joined the service between 2005 and 2015, had appeared for promotion interviews under the career advancement scheme in June this year. “Three months have lapsed since the university finalized the promotion decisions. However, it is yet to issue the promotion orders.”
Pointing out that the assistant professors who were temporarily recruited under the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) 11th plan and later placed under the 12th plan were terminated following a two-judge bench of Madras high court order, another faculty member said they were still working with the university. “This is when they are facing audit objections and DVAC and court cases.”
Recently, the assistant professors in question had obtained an order from the high court, asking the university to conduct promotion interviews under the career advancement scheme for the ones who do not have any audit objections or DVAC and court cases in their names. The order directed the university authorities to submit the documents to the audit section within two weeks and initiate the interviews.
The university confirmed that all the faculty members would be promoted after conducting the remaining interview sessions.