GUWAHATI, March 8 � Blame it on sheer negligence on the part of the Education department or lack of accountability in the entire system, Cotton College, the region�s premier educational institute, continues to be at the receiving end.
Already hit by insufficient teaching staff, the historic college is now facing the brunt of faculty members allegedly skipping their duties under the pretext of study leave or being on lien.
�What else can one expect for a college that has not seen its governing body meet for almost a decade, the last being held way back in 2000,� Samiran Baishya, former general secretary of the Cotton College Union Society (CCUS) said.
Baishya further informed that the CCSU has always been raising their voice against such trends and the students� body during his tenure as general secretary also resorted to hunger strike but to no avail.
Representatives of the CCSU, while talking to this reporter, alleged that some of the teachers who are currently on lien have engaged themselves in other educational institutes in the State itself for extra bucks, which is totally unjustified.
�Their lien period gets extended from time to time and the authority, for some strange reasons, takes no note of the fact that these faculty members are misusing their rights at the cost of the future of the students,� Gaurab Gogoi, general secretary, CCSU rued.
�This is setting a bad precedent as far as the future of Cotton College is concerned and the State Government must act in a proactive manner to address the disturbing trend,� Gogoi pointed out. Terming inadequacy of teaching staff as a major concern, Gogoi informed that of the total 234 posts, 27 are still vacant. Moreover, five others are on lien and the number of teachers on study leave stood at four.