BGSBU teachers threaten to go on pen-down strike

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 22: Teachers of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) in Rajouri have threatened to go on a pen-down strike in case their genuine demands are not redressed in a stipulated time frame.
They are also mulling to meet the Chancellor of the varsity, LG Manoj Sinha, next week, to call the attention of the latter about their grievances for their early redressal.
“Within a week’s period, if our demands are not met, we will call on the Chancellor of the varsity and seek his intervention in the redressal of the same,” a spokesperson of the Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Teachers Association (BGSBUTA) told the Excelsior on condition of anonymity, adding, “and in case, our demands are not met even after meeting the LG, we will go on pen-down strike outside the Vice-Chancellor’s secretariat”.
The BGSBU’s teaching faculty, joined by the non-teaching staff, has already been on a hour-long protest within the varsity campus since January 16, this year, demanding a career advancement scheme (CAS) for the teachers, proper grades for lecturers and their promotion policy, promotion policy for non-teaching staff, barring of retired faculty members from holding administrative positions in the varsity, reshuffling of administrative positions, disposal of files in line with J&K Public Service Guarantee Act, 2011, completion of stalled buildings and construction of building for which sanction has already been approved by the J&K government, filling of vacant administrative positions, streamlining of extra mural research projects sanctioned by different funding agencies of the Government of India, and disposal of the case of Prof Mohammad Asgher at the earliest as per the merit under UGC guidelines. Pertinently, Prof. Asgher is under suspension for the past two years over a case of alleged financial irregularities.
The BGSBUTA spokesperson said that thus far they have met the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Joint Registrar and other administrative heads seeking redressal of their issues but without any success.
“For university to prosper by leaps and bounds, teaching faculty, the backbone of the university, request your good self to do the needful at the earliest.
“But if our demands are not met in a set time frame, we will be left with no other option but to go for pen-down strike,” he said.