Non-teaching staff alleges stagnation in career
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, Oct 5: The Government College of Engineering and Technology (GCET) in Chak Bhalwal area of Jammu has been grappling with a multitude of issues, including a shortage of faculty, inadequate infrastructure, along with other issues, resulting in “administrative inefficiencies.”
Sources said that the only Government College of Engineering and Technology in Jammu, which is spread over an area of 869 kanals, is not only reeling under the shortage of staff but the non-teaching employees working in the institute have also been facing stagnation in their career due to non-availability of the proper recruitment rules and several other factors.
According to some students, who approached the Excelsior with their grievances, only 28 out of 72 posts of Assistant Professors/Professors in their college have been filled, leaving 46 posts vacant.
According to them, the post of Principal at the prestigious college has also been lying vacant for the past 30 years, and the college is being led by a caretaker principal.
The infrastructure woes at the GCET are also glaring as according to the students, eleven buildings, including essential facilities like the Electronics and Communication Engineering block, Electrical Engineering Block, and the College Canteen, remain unfinished.
“This lack of infrastructure severely affects the quality of education and practical training,” alleged the students.
The students further claimed that the School of Architecture within the GCET is suffering due to the absence of permanent faculty and infrastructure as they claimed the caretaker principal is overseeing the current affairs of the school, despite having no expertise in architecture.
One of the non-teaching staff members also said on condition of anonymity that the non-teaching staff and technicians have been facing stagnation in their careers due to the absence of recruitment rules and inefficiencies in the college’s administration.
“This has led to administrative staff being assigned additional responsibilities, further hampering the college’s overall operations,” he said.
Another challenge confronting the students is the transportation to the remote location of the GCET in Chak Bhalwal area of Jammu District. According to them, the college has only two buses for transporting the students.
They also regretted the absence of a permanent warden, college’s personal internet facility and the use of pirated softwares required for engineering courses.
The lack of rotation of departmental heads, contrary to AICTE norms, is also hindering the professionally growth of the faculty members, they said, adding that some heads have held their positions for over a decade.
“The absence of proper infrastructure, faculty, and transportation along with other challenges, has been adding to the decline in the student enrolment in 2022 and 2023,” said another student on condition that he is not named.
He requested the UT Government in Jammu and Kashmir to transition the college to an autonomous body following AICTE norms and admit students based on JEE main scores rather than BOPEE to revitalize GCET’s status.
The non-gazetted technical staff at GCET also called for separate recruitment rules, career advancement opportunities, and modernized job titles to align with the industry standards. They believed that the ITI staff, with less technical education enjoys more favourable career prospects, which needs rectification.
Principal of the Government College for Engineering and Technology, Dr Sameru Sharma, contradicted all claims of the students and asserted that they’re only tarnishing the image of the college without knowing the ground realities.
According to her, the PSC has already started the process for filling up the vacant posts of the teaching staff in the college.
“The interviews for the advertised posts are scheduled on October 22. Once the result for these posts is out, the college would get the permanent staff. But as far as the hiring of contractual employees to run the college’s affairs is concerned, they were all hired after following the AICTE norms and they’re all competent and professional teachers,” she said.
According to her, college has a proper warden, internet facility, and there is no scarcity of any other resources.
Replying a query about lack of proper staff at the School of Architecture, she said, “we don’t deal with this institution as this is a completely different set up but the Government has sanctioned Rs 18-19 crores to make this institution fully functional and it will be inaugurated in December this year.”
As far as non-rotation of HoDs is concerned, she said, “the AICTE norms have nowhere mandated the rotation of the staff in an Engineering College.” “This is done in universities and ours is not a university,” she said.
On alleged decline in the strength of students over the years, she clarified that the claims are completely baseless as the college is not facing any such issue.
On alleged lack of proper transportation facility, she said, “we were definitely facing this challenge but now we’ve taken up this matter with JKRTC and sooner, we’ll get the fleet of buses to ferry the students.”
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