Resentment is brewing among the engineering pass-outs of National Institute of Technology (NIT) against the authorities for denying teaching jobs to them under the pretext of cooling period.
The rider of cooling period restricts the candidates fromapplying for any teaching post in the institute for a period of three yearsafter completion of their PhD from the same institution.
“The rider has provencostly for the NIT candidates as after completing their degree they are barredto apply for the jobs while as the candidates from other institutions arepreferred for the posts,” said an official.
Meanwhile a group of aggrieved candidates said that PhD fromNIT Srinagar takes almost five to six years to complete. They termed thecriteria of cooling period as flawed and urged the NIT administration to relaxit for the candidates of the same institution.
The aspirants said they worked hard to qualify PhD entrancetest to get enrolled in the NIT which is one of the reputed engineeringinstitute.
“But we were not aware that this will turn out to be anightmare for us. We never knew we will be rejected by our own institution.Besides completing PhD, students appear in various national level exams toqualify basic eligibility for entry in NIT. So when a student completes a PhDhe crosses the age of 36 to 37 years,” the aspirants said.
“In a recentrecruitment drive, out of 47 assistant professors at least 40 aspirants werefrom outside the state as almost all the eligible candidates from NIT Srinagarwere not considered because of cooling period,” the aspirants said.
The candidates said the axe has fallen only on the pass-outsof NIT Srinagar while as other states like Mizoram, Manipur, Patna, Megahalya,Rorekella, Agartala advertise the faculty positions without any rider ofcooling period.
“Some of these states have reserved 50 percent quota forpass-outs of their own institutions,” the dejected aspirants said, adding thatthe voices should be raised against the discrimination with the aspirants. “Weapproached the NIT administration a number of times but in vain. We havelimited options in J&K state and the rider of cooling period has put ourfuture in dark,” the aspirants said.
The aspirants urged the J&K Governor and advisorsKhurshid Ahmad Ganai for their personal intervention into the matter.
Dean faculty of Engineering at NIT, M F Wani said the riderhas been set by MHRD for all NITs to stop the in-breeding in the institutes.
“We understand their problem but the rider is beingimplemented at all NITs on directions of MHRD. They are our students and we aretrying to help them. Even I am equally worried about their job placements, Butwe are following the rules of Government of India,” Wani said.
He said the MHRD norms allow them to relax the coolingperiod if the teaching positions advertised by the institute don’t get filleddespite notifying the posts twice.
“If we don’t get the response in two notifications, then werelax the rules and waive off the cooling period for making recruitment of thecandidates for teaching positions,” he said.
Meanwhile the candidates didn’t buy the argument saying thatthe institute should go for screening of the candidates to fill up the teachingpositions. “Those who will qualify the screening will be selected in a transparentmanner. But using the rider of cooling period is detrimental to us,” thecandidates said.
Registrar NIT, S K Bukhari said they have already discussedthe issue with the MHRD who turned down the plea to relax the rule of coolingperiod.
“But we will again take up the matter with them for thebenefit of students. Let us hope they will consider our plea,” Bukhari said.