TN MP asks Education Minister for exact numbers of SC, ST, OBC vacancies, requests rosters to be uploaded online

Tamil Nadu Lok Sabha MP S Venkatesan from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has written to the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asking for a reservation category-wise breakup of the vacancies at the Central Educational Institutions (CEI). The MP also asked the minister to ensure that all CEIs make and upload reservation rosters on their website.

Venkatesan claimed that even though his question at the Parliament specifically asked for the vacancies for SC, ST, OBC, EWS and unreserved categories, Pradhan's reply only stated the total number of vacancies — 13,701. "Please also provide the breakup of the vacancies for each social category, cadre-wise and institution-wise," wrote the TN MP.

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He also pointed out that in the same reply the minister has stated that no CEI has "expressed inability in preparation of reservation rosters for recruitment or sought clarification". "But many RTI replies received from MoE and CFTIs show that many CFTIs having flexible faculty cadre structure informed that they have not prepared reservation rosters for teaching posts because there is no breakup of the posts in cadres. Some have demanded guidelines or clarifications from your ministry for fixing the strength of each cadre of teaching posts, and are waiting for it to prepare the rosters in each cadre," Venkatesan told Pradhan in his letter and presented examples of IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIT Bhilai, NIT Surathkal and NIT Jamshedpur.

The MP said that roster preparation is an integral part of the identification of reserved posts and implementation of reservation and it's a moot question how the CEIs would implement it while filling vacancies. "Please take strict action to ensure that all the CEIs make reservation rosters and upload it on their website as it is a public document as per DoPT instructions," said Venkatesan.

The Education Ministry had instructed the CEIs to start recruitment on "mission mode" from September 5, 2021, Venkatesan said that he would like to see some proof. "I wish to know which CEIs have started implementing it and which CEIs are yet to start," he said and added many CFTIs are conducting special recruitments only for entry-level jobs and this is a violation of the CEI (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Act 2019. "If the aim of the ongoing mission mode recruitment exercise is really to ensure adequate representation of the SC, ST, OBC categories, then special recruitment should compulsorily be on the basis of reservation roster of each cadre of teaching posts including the Professor and Associate Professor cadres where underrepresentation of the SC, ST and OBC communities is severe," he added.