Engineering Teachers Protest Outside Education Minister's Residence Seeking Permanent Job

Nearly 50 assistant professors who were recruited on a temporary basis under a special Education Ministry project protested outside Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s residence here on Wednesday and demanded regularisation of their services. A section of faculty members hired under the third phase Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) initiated with the World Bank also sat on a day-long hunger strike at Mandi House to raise their demands.

Some faculty members have also been staging a sit-in outside Shastri Bhawan where the education ministry office is located. Tejas Bele, one of the protesters, said, “We sat outside Education Minister’s residence and police requested us to disperse since it’s a high security zone. We also met the additional secretary at the minister’s residence who said that state governments will address our concerns.” Bele said a meeting is again scheduled for Thursday with ministry officials.

All the protesting faculty members are IIT and NIT graduates. Under the TEQIP-III project, 1,500 assistant professors were recruited on a temporary basis for 71 engineering institutions in rural areas with focus on 12 states.

The project is aimed at improving the quality of technical education, especially in low-income states, by providing highly qualified faculty members to existing engineering colleges. After the project period, the state governments were supposed to recruit them. The faculty members had earlier protested at Jantar Mantar and were given assurance that their case would be taken up with the respective state governments and was also granted extension for another six months.

The extension will come to an end on Thursday, Bele said, adding that their demands and concerns are not being addressed. ”TEQIP Assistant Professor having degree from IIT/NIT detained by Delhi police because they are raising their voice for sustainability plan which was promised by Central govt. It’s the assassination of democracy,” tweeted one of the protesters.

A senior police officer said that none of the protesters was detained. They staged protest outside the education minister’s residence here and later dispersed after police requested them. There were 40-50 protesters who had gathered outside the minister’s residence, he added.

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