Vacancies include 67 Professors, 82 Associate Professors and 218 Assistant Professors

Bengaluru: There are 1,457 vacant posts in the University of Mysore (UoM) and the vacancies have not been filled up due to financial restrictions imposed by the Government.

This was revealed to the Legislative Council yesterday by Higher Education Minister Dr. C.N. Ashwathnarayan, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister (Dy.CM). He was replying to a question raised by MLC Sandesh Nagaraj.

In his reply, the Minister stated that the posts of 67 Professors, 82 Associate Professors, 218 Assistant Professors, 82 Second Division Assistants (SDA), 243 technical posts and 765 non-teaching staff posts have been lying vacant since years and appointments have not been possible so far due to the financial restrictions imposed by the Government, he said.

Steps will be taken to fill up the vacancies only after the restrictions are removed, the Minister stated.

Sandesh Nagaraj urged the Minister to fill the vacancies and also utilise the grants provided by the Central Government. All steps must be taken to make the University gain fame globally,  he opined. 

Responding, the Minister said that in the last three years, Rs. 66 crore grant has been given by the Centre, University Grants Commission (UGC) and other institutions and of this, Rs. 53 crore has been spent judiciously on various schemes and programmes. 

Tribal rights on forests

Replying to another issue raised in the Council by Sandesh Nagaraj, Social Welfare Minister B. Sriramulu said that till now, under tribal rights over forests rule 2006 and 2008, over 21,179 applications have been received in Chamarajanagar district and out of them, 2,079 applications have been addressed and title deeds have been issued to 3,365.90 acres. Other applications have been rejected and there are no pending applications.

In Mysuru district, under the rule and as per the rights of scheduled tribes, traditional forest dwellers and community rights holders, 7,275 applications have been received and of them, 760 applications have been addressed and title deeds for 8776.25 acres have been issued.  5,657 applications have been rejected and 858 applications are pending, he stated. 

A process has been set in motion to re-examine rejected applications and to clear pending applications and Additional Chief Secretary of Social Welfare Department has conducted a meeting. Regarding the shifting and resettlement of tribals from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, the Forest Department has been asked to implement the Muzaffar Assadi Committee recommendations based on the directive of Karnataka High Court.

The Department has been asked to implement the Committee recommendations with a fixed time frame. Even the Revenue Department has been asked to conduct joint surveys along with Forest Department to speedily address the issues raised in the applications, the Minister replied.

The Deputy Commissioners of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar have been directed to re-examine rejected applications and complete the process by Dec. 15, he added.