Face2News/Chandigarh,
Senior officials of Haryana Contractual College Teachers Association (HCCTA) Rampal Singh, Charan Singh Grover, Sandeep Kumar, Dr Sonu Rani, Dr Neha, Dr Rakesh, Dr Devendra Singh, Dr Rahul, Dr Deepak and other members led a press conference at Chandigarh Press Club.
During this, he expressed his opinion on the ongoing PhD dispute in the Higher Education Department of Haryana and clarified the real situation.
Rampal, President of Haryana Contractual College Teachers Association (HCCTA), said that the correct information related to the hearing of CWP 26892/2023 in the Punjab and Haryana High Court was not presented before the court. This has created fear and threat of job loss among the extension lecturers of the state. He said that they have been teaching in government colleges since 2011 with full honesty and dedication, but the recent UGC order of January 16, 2025 has put their future in jeopardy.
He informed that UGC in its letter has banned three private universities of Rajasthan, OPJS, Sunrise and Singhania University, from conferring PhD degrees for the next five years (2025-2030). However, it was not clarified whether the PhD degrees already obtained are invalid or will be considered illegal.
On this basis, the Haryana government issued a speaking order on February 18 and fired 160 extension lecturers from their jobs. The association said that hundreds of people who have done PhD from these universities are working as regular assistant professors, aided colleges, private universities and other government posts. In such a situation, action only against extension lecturers is under question.
President said that in May 2024, the Higher Education Department and college principals had got all PhD degrees verified, but despite 10 months having passed, its report has not been made public. It was also not made clear in the speaking order how the degree is fake.
(SUBHEAD)He has met the Chief Minister, Education Minister and Director of Higher Education Rahul Hooda regarding this issue. He expressed hope that the fight will be fought in the court with strong facts through experienced lawyers and all the removed extension lecturers will be reinstated as soon as possible.
When UGC Secretary Mr. Manish Joshi was talked to about the degrees obtained from three universities, he told through his personal tweet that the ban has been imposed only from 2025 to 2030 i.e. for the next five years, those who have received PhD from these three universities will remain valid.
The association appealed to the media to publish news on this serious matter only after fact-checking, as it is a question of livelihood not only of extension lecturers but of their entire families. They also thanked all the journalists who attended the press conference.