DUTA PRESS RELEASE: October 3, 2019

Teachers Strike work, participate in Halla Bol rally on DU Campus to draw attention to continuous attack on service conditions of DU teachers

Teachers of Delhi University observed a one-day Strike against the DU VC’s sinister design to convert Adhoc appointments to Guest and Contractual faculty, as well as his continuing indifference towards teachers waiting for their promotions, pensions and 7th Pay dues. 

Students also joined their teachers across colleges and departments in a Protest March taken through the main university campus, demanding immediate withdrawal of the 28 Aug letter that only allows Guest appointments against fresh full-time regular vacancies. Replacement of full-time teachers by guest faculty who are paid on per lecture basis,  will have major implications for the quality of teaching in DU and its colleges as full-time teachers are engaged in administrative, research, extracurricular activities and mentoring of students beyond class hours.

As a result of this DU circular, hundreds of classes are not being engaged across colleges in this semester. To protest against the draconian 28 August DU circular,  its copies were burnt at Arts Faculty.

The UGC Guidelines regarding guest appointments were adopted on 1 July 2019 without taking into considerations the needs of the federal structure and the size of DU.  As a result of centralised Selection Committee, guest appointments have either not taken place in many  units or have been delayed by several weeks leading to loss of teaching time in University Departments and colleges. The DUTA is demanding review of these rules. The VC has, however, continued to ignore the catastrophic consequences of his decision on teaching-learning.

DUTA has also sent a detailed Memorandum to the VC reminding him that the promotions backlog continues to pile up in the University. Lack of promotions for the last ten years has led to exodus of many teachers. Stagnation has demoralized teachers completely. Over 3000 teachers are due for their promotions for last several years. The DUTA has demanded that the past services of a teacher must be counted towards the date of eligibility for promotion. Not doing so, against the past practice and inspite of the DU Ordinances providing for such counting, is a gross injustice to the teaching profession.

The DUTA finds it unacceptable that pensions and arrears for pensioners are not being disbursed on time, colleges have not been issued orders to restore due M.Phil. and Ph.D. increments under current UGC Regulations and 7th Pay arrears have not been paid to teachers in the University departments. The DUTA has also demanded an end to the continuous attacks on Physical Education as a discipline and not allowing advertisement of vacant positions of teachers in physical education. It has further demanded an immediate stop to the illegal recoveries being made from teachers, under various pretexts.

DUTA holds the VC squarely responsible for the dysfunctional and unresponsive administration.

The DUTA will do extensive mobilisation of teachers and students in the coming days and launch continuous action programmes if its demands continue to be ignored by the DU Administration and the MHRD.