DUTA Letter to VC, 11.12.2018

11 December 2018

Professor Yogesh Tyagi
Vice Chancellor
University of Delhi
Delhi 110007

Dear Professor Tyagi,

The DUTA Executive met yesterday to take note of the widespread anger and disappointment amongst teachers over the postponement without a definite date of the Academic Council to consider regarding the delay in amendment adoption of the amendment of relevant Ordinances related to appointment of teachers and other academic staff in colleges and University and promotion and service conditions of teachers. In every meeting and through our written communications, we have impressed upon you the fact that teachers of the University and its colleges have been deprived of career advancement which ought to be done in a time-bound manner. However, it is extremely unfortunate that the University has not deemed it necessary to give its teachers their due.

It does not augur well that you, as the academic head of the institution, refuse to take any steps towards ameliorating the conditions of all sections of the university. The administration is solely responsible for the irreparable loss to the families of those teachers who have passed away in service without being promoted or their pension cases resolved. While the university has been promoting teachers due for superannuation, it points to the insensitivity of your administration that this career advancement does not help teachers while in service and amounts to not recognizing the service rendered by them. Similarly, the inordinate delay on appointments and the unwillingness to take steps for the regularization/ absorption of teachers through permanent appointments is affecting the lives of thousands of young teachers whose future seems bleak and uncertain. Teachers who have served the university for decades find themselves in dire straits as their pension cases remains unresolved. We hope you understand that all sections of the university are losing faith in your abilities to resolve any matter. 

You have been in office for nearly three years and it anguishes us to say that bureaucratic procedures, committees set up to look into matters that could be settled in a routine manner, refusal to hold regular meetings of statutory bodies, delays in or refusal to address important decisions have become the hallmark of your administration. You seem oblivious to the fact that all this is not only affecting the academic and administrative functioning of the university but also the morale of teachers who are being professionally and personally wronged despite their commitment and selfless contribution to the university.

We reiterate our demand of our earlier communication dt 7.12.2018 that you take immediate steps to call the AC meeting within a week, i.e. by 19.12.2018, notwithstanding the fact that the vacations would have begun and many of the members may not be available. The agenda of this meeting must list the amended Ordinances based on the UGC Regulations 2018. We would like to warn you that in case you decide to go ahead with the meeting without including this important agenda, we would be constrained to not allow you to proceed. We also demand that the meeting of the Executive Council be convened within 72 hours of the Academic Council meeting so that the Ordinances can be fully incorporated and the promotion process can begin without any further delay. Similarly, the issue of counting of past services under MPS 1998 and CAS 2010, cases of wrongful recovery from teachers, adoption of the revised allowances and pension, as well as pension cases should be brought immediately to the relevant statutory bodies for positive consideration.

We wish to highlight once more that the insistence on uploading the promotion form and all publications in OCR ready format appears to be a delay tactics on the part of the university that has proved its inefficiency. We demand that the process of application and grant of promotions be simplified and de-bureaucratized so that promotions are given on time.

We wish to remind you that it is your duty to govern the university in an efficient manner. The DUTA will be forced into action if you do not respond to our demands. Teachers are no longer willing to put up with the administration’s lackadaisical approach to matters of governance and believe that you must either act or step down.

Thanking you,
Regards