Here is another example of dark side of Nitish’s developing Bihar. Nitish Kumar led NDA government which is hitting the national and international headlines with the stories of development doesn’t have adequate teaching staff (lecturers) in its colleges. The absence of adequate staffs is causing great handicaps in carrying out the academic activities. As per government reports 3, 395 vacancies of teachers exist in various universities of the state. There has been no appointment of teachers for over nine years in Bihar. With 650 vacancies Magadh University in Gaya is topping the list followed by Bihar University (600 vacancies), Lalit Narayan Mithila University (550 vacancies), Tilka Manjhi University (425 vacancies), Jai Prakash University (380 vacancies), Veer Kuer Singh University (360 vacancies), Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University (230 vacancies) and Patna University (200 vacancies).
After a meeting in the state capital the Bihar government has decided to fill these vacancies in its eight universities through Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC). The Education department of Bihar has already prepared the draft for appointing teachers, which will be sent to the state cabinet for approval. The proposal after the approval of education minister P K Shahi has been referred to the law department. An amendment in the Bihar State Universities Act will be affected to pave the way for the appointment through BPSC.
Earlier an amendment bill was introduced in the state assembly, which had proposed constitution of a University Commission. However, the bill was turned down Governor Devanand Konwar, who is also Chancellor of the state universities, saying it was a Finance Bill. After that the government decided to go for new appointments through the BPSC. The education department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha said that the appointments would be made before the start of next academic session in 2013.
The decision of government has been welcomed by the Vice Chancellors of various universities. Hopes are alive for the unemployed youths of Bihar as they are looking ahead to get selected at teaching position in the colleges of Bihar. However, till the vacancies get properly filled up it would be too early to predict anything as Bihar is widely known for irregularities in appointment process especially in teaching department.
