The National Institute of Technology (NIT), Imphal is one of the 32 such institutes in India. It was established in 2010. The NITs came into being under an Act of Parliament. The NITs, although primarily engineering institutes, offer job-oriented courses and have 50 per cent of the seats reserved for the host states. Initially attached to the campus of the State Government Polytechnic, the NIT Manipur soon set up its own campus at Lamphelpat.
But over time, the powers to be controlling the affairs of the NIT, Manipur, began adopting an ad-hoc-ish policy towards recruitment of its staff both in the teaching and non-teaching sections. For instance, 30 faculty members have been employed for more than 10 years in a row. There have been no moves to absorb them through a policy decision, but rather adopted a “we don’t care’ attitude and have asked them to appear as fresh candidates, the only relaxation being given that of upper age relaxation.
But again recently when the NIT advertised for the post of assistant professor, it clubbed management and economics together where the questions were divided 50:50. But management and economics are two different disciplines, although there may be sections that overlap each other. However such lapses cannot be condoned since many different faculty members exist in the institute, and how the post was advertised as economics/ management is something that the NIT authorities would have to explain.
At the moment, there are a total of 30 faculty members functioning on a contractual basis at the NIT. 15 of these teachers have gone to seek solace from the High Court citing rulings of the Supreme Court inter alia regularisation of contractual employees after prolonged service on ad-hoc basis.
Speaking to The Statesman, one of the contractual teachers said that after having spent 10 years at the NIT and in the process, she has also completed her Ph.D, if she is to be treated as a fresher when it comes to regular appointments, then where is the justice? Also speaking to The Statesman Prof. Tomba Singh, Registrar of the NIT, said that decisions about appointments and recruitments are vested in the hands of the authorities in the Centre and that the panel of selectors includes top echelons of the NIT and from the IITs also meaning that there can be no room for any discrepancies in the selection process. He also added that at the moment there are eight disciplines at the NIT, Manipur, and has a total of 1,500 students on rolls. He also added that there were 800 applicants for 13 posts which were advertised and as such had to resort to a written test followed by a presentation before the selection board.
When asked if there is any interference from the non-state actors who are active in Manipur and have their fingers in the running of all educational establishments, he said that since construction work ended in 2015, there have not been many disturbances but they do come once in a while to dictate their point of views.
The good news is that the NIT, Manipur unlike other centrally run educational institutions in Manipur has not become a den of corruption inviting CBI cases but is failing in its recruitment of its staff both academics as well non-teaching staff many of them who have been languishing for many years and it would be a cardinal crime if the NIT would just throw them into the dustbin.
The writer is a senior journalist with The Statesman