By Ganesh Bhatt

New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS): While the University of Delhi (DU) has set a record 100 per cent cut-off for admissions in several undergraduate courses across various colleges, there are more than 20 colleges where posts of permanent principals are lying vacant for a long time. All these colleges are completely funded by the Delhi government. These colleges do not even have a governing body.

Colleges affiliated to DU which do not have a permanent principal include -- Sri Aurobindo College, Sri Aurobindo College (evening), Motilal Nehru College, Motilal Nehru College (evening), Satyawati College, Satyawati College (evening), Bhagat Singh College, Bhagat Singh College (evening), Shyama Prasad Mukherji College, Vivekanand College, Bharati College, Indira Gandhi Sports College, Maharaja Agrasen College, Rajdhani College, Deendayal Upadhyay College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Bhagini Nivedita College, Maharishi Valmiki College of Education, Gargi College, Kamala Nehru College, Maitreyi College etc.

In some of these colleges there are acting officers on special duty working for five or more years.

Under the University Grant Commission (UGC) regulations, tenure of principals in the varsity is fixed for five years but they are holding their position even after their term is over.

Hansraj Suman, teacher and DU's former Academic Council member, said the varsity administration is repeatedly giving extensions to the governing body in these 20 colleges while most of these colleges had put out advertisements to fill the principals post, but they don't have a proper governing body to do that.

The term of the governing body in all 20 colleges affiliated to DU ended on September 13, 2021. The varsity gave them a three-month extension twice and there is no provision of giving extension for the third time. Now these colleges have started forming truncated governing bodies from September 17 this year.

Now to fill these posts of principals, the varsity administration will have to send a circular to all 20 colleges through advertisements seeking appointments. The various DU teachers associations have demanded from Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to fill the vacant posts of Principals and Assistant Professors in all 20 colleges as soon as possible.

They said the time limit of the advertisements for the interview for the posts of principals in these colleges has expired. These teachers bodies say permanent teachers and principals can be appointed by means of advertisements only if there is a governing body in these colleges.

Due to non-permanent appointment for the post of principals, the appointment of assistant professors is also not taking place in these colleges while appointments and promotions on non-academic posts are going on unabated.

The salaries of teachers in 12 out of 20 these colleges is still pending. Delhi University Teachers' Association President, Rajib Ray has raised this issue with the UGC. After meeting with the UGC authorities, Ray said a demand has been made before the statutory body to take over the control of these colleges.