Assistant Professors working in colleges have taken strong objection to the Special Transfer Guidelines issued by the Collegiate Education Department on February 26 regarding placement for newly appointed assistant professors for government first grade colleges through the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).
They said the rules followed for general transfer of assistant professors have been abandoned in the new special transfer guidelines. The transfer of assistant professors working in the ‘E’ zone (rural areas) has been made compulsory and assistant professors who were transferred six months ago have also been considered for special transfer.
A total of 1,242 vacant posts of assistant professors in the Government First Grade Colleges have been taken up to be filled through the KEA, and the government has issued appointment orders for candidates who have been selected for 1,208 posts of assistant professors in 26 subjects.
According to the Karnataka State Civil Services (Transfer of College Education Department Teaching Staff) Rules, 2021, assistant professors who have received the appointment order will be allocated to in the ‘E’ zone according to the workload. In case the required number of vacancies are not available in ‘E’ zone, those working in ‘E’ zone will be transferred to ‘D’, ‘C’, ‘B’ and ‘A’ zones (A being urban and corporation areas) to create vacancies to allocate newly appointed assistant professors.
However, in this special transfer guidelines, while the department has considered factors such as spouse, widow, single parent, divorcee, serious ailments, and other special cases, it has abandoned the ‘three-year service period,’ which was the main criterion and eligibility followed in the general transfer process.
The department has already released the list of around 1,200 assistant professors currently working in ‘E’ zone for transfer, among whom are 794 assistant professors who will be compulsorily transferred to either ‘D’ or other zones. In this list, there are names of hundreds of assistant professors who were transferred to ‘E’ zone barely six months ago.
“It is not right that the department has dropped the three-year service period criterion. I have been working in ‘D’ zone for the last six years and 600 km away from my native place. Despite having seniority, I have not been transferred till now. However, in the special transfer process, those who were transferred to ‘E’ zone six months back from other zones have also been transferred - two transfers in the same year. Thousands of qualified assistant professors leave their parents and children and work in remote areas for many years,” said an assistant professor.
“During the special transfer proceedings held in 2017, transfer was made ‘optional’ for assistant professors working in ‘E’ zone. Because of this, many assistant professors of ‘D’, ‘C’, ‘B’ and ‘A’ zones were given the opportunity to get transferred. However, in this year’s special transfer process, transfer has been made compulsory for who are working in ‘E’ zone. Those working in other zones are not getting transfer. The government should provide transfer opportunities to those who are eligible. Instead of making special transfers compulsory, it should be made optional,” demanded another assistant professor.
MLC’s letter to Minister
Marithibbegowda, Member of Legislative Council (MLC) has written to the Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar saying that the Karnataka State Civil Services (Transfer of College Education Department Teaching Staff) Rules, 2021 were dismissed by the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) on September 30, 2021. “The High Court stayed the KSAT order on January 17, 2022 and the case is still pending,” he said, adding that the special transfer guidelines under the 2021 rules is not justifiable and requested him to exempt assistant professors working in ‘E’ zone from compulsory transfer and allow them to choose colleges freely.
Counselling date extended
Speaking to The Hindu, M.C. Sudhakar, Minister of Higher Education said, “We have announced the special transfer schedule, according to the Karnataka State Civil Services (Transfer of College Education Department Teaching Staff) Rules, 2021. Any fresh appointment of assistant professors in the department should start their career from the ‘E’ zone only. Only 21 assistant professor have less than one year of service in the ‘E’ zone. 190 people have less than two years and around 10 people have less than three years. Around 400 people have above four years of service in the ‘E’ zone and we also listed 300 people in the ‘D’ zone. Many assistant professors were given representation in this regard and they requested to exempt the compulsory transfer. If they don’t want to be willing to move upper zone, if at all there is no vacancy, how we will accommodate the new appointees? He questioned.
“Therefore, we revised the schedule of transfer counselling and extended the date for submitting the objections. We don’t want to run into any legal issues. After submission of the objection, if it is possible to clear, we will clear it earlier. In case, the code of conduct of parliament election would be implemented, it will be extended to another two to three months,” he said.
