Termination of service issue: Give fair chance of hearing to guest scholars, says Madhya Pradesh DHE

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh) : In a major policy shift, the Department of Higher Education (DHE) has instructed the principals that guest scholars should be given a fair chance of hearing before their services are terminated abruptly. The Guest Scholars Association has welcomed the department’s decision.

Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Higher Education, Shailendra Singh issued new guidelines related to guest scholars on Saturday. According to new guidelines, the principals should first issue a show cause notice to the guest scholar if one is not regular in attendance and remains absent without notice.

If the answer to the show cause notice is not found satisfactory then the principal should issue a warning letter to the teacher concerned. If there is no change in attitude of the guest scholar then the principal should give one month’s time and still if the teacher does not fall in line, then his/her services should be terminated and entry made on the portal.

The new guideline also states that the guest scholar will have one week’s time to appeal against the decision with the additional director of the division. This should be addressed within ten days. In case, the guest scholar still remains unsatisfied, one can go for a second appeal with the commissioner of higher education within three days of the decision.

Welcoming the move, media in-charge of the Guest Scholar Association, Ashish Pandey said that this will act as noose for unruly principals. “With absolute power, principals at several colleges used to harass guest scholars threatening them to terminate their services. Guest scholars had no option but to surrender to their wishes,” said Pandey.

Guest scholars are not entitled to any kind of paid leave nor are they entitled to other allowances that government servants avail. Moreover, they were constantly under pressure of the principals. This decision will give a big relief to us, added Pandey.