OBC students' group writes to Education Minister to direct all HEIs to make their rosters public

While an order from Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare has asked the heads of the Central Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs) to fill up faculty positions, especially the ones earmarked for SC, ST, OBC and EWS categories, in a "Mission Mode", the rosters of these recruitments should also be made public, demanded the students of the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA). They wrote to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to urge all HEIs to share their rosters on their respective websites.

The AIOBCSA, in their letter, said that these documents are being interchanged and even deviated and diverted at times. But why is the roster so important? "In the background of filling SC, ST, OBC, EWS, PWD backlog faculty positions in all CHEIs, rosters are key to identify reserved backlog positions. The Delhi High Court identified problems with JNU's rosters and asked the university to upload rosters on the website. NCBC identified issues with DU and UoH rosters and asked them to correct the documents," said Kiran Kumar, President of the AIOBCSA.

He said that despite various letters which were repeatedly sent from the UGC and the Ministry, many universities and HEIs are not maintaining transparency and accountability in maintaining teaching and non-teaching rosters. "Hence, as non-compliance to keeping rosters in the public domain will impact the mission mode project of the Ministry to fill all reserved vacancies by one year, we requested Dharmendra Pradhan to instruct all CHEIs to adhere to reservation policy and keep their rosters in the public domain," he added.

Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare had written to the Directors of all IITs, NITs, IIITs, IIMs, Vice-Chancellors of all Central Universities and the heads of all centrally funded institutes on August 24 with the order to fill up faculty positions lying vacant, especially the ones earmarked for SC, ST, OBC and EWS categories, in a "Mission Mode" within a year — from September 5, 2021 to September 4, 2022. The institutes have to also log in the progress of this particular issue in the Annual Reports and send monthly reports on the status of requirements to him. The issue has to be logged in as an agenda in every major meeting with the status of filling up of the backlogs.