The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has not renewed the contracts of more than 100 teaching and non-teaching staffers, claimed some faculty members, inviting sharp criticism from the teachers and a students' body.
The contracts of the teaching and non-teaching staff at four TISS campuses -- Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad and Guwahati -- were due to end on June 30, some faculty members on Sunday told PTI on condition of anonymity.
A bulk of them worked on the TISS campuses other than Mumbai, they said.
A faculty member said these contracts had been issued for the teaching and non-teaching staff from grants received from the Tata Trust.
"It is over the last 10-15 years that we have been receiving the grants for employing additional faculty to teach various courses. That funding was to be renewed. The no-cost extension and renewal of grant doesn't seem to have happened in a timely manner," the person said.
"We were apprised on June 28 about the non-renewal of contracts. We told the TISS administration not to issue the letters (pertaining to non-renewal of contracts) till it hears from the Tata Trust. Let us try to find a solution. But our appeal did not find favour," the faculty member said.
Some of the teaching staff members were even part of the interview process which selects candidates for academic sessions for various courses last month, the person said.
"We asked the administration about the status of funding last month and we were told that there was no reason to worry and suddenly notices were issued that contracts have not been renewed due to lack of funds. This is sheer mismanagement on part of the administration which could not foresee what was coming," the faculty member claimed.
Another faculty member said usually contracts get over and teaching members continue to work. In the past, no notice of termination of contracts was given.
"It seems that this has been done deliberately," he claimed.
Another faculty member said, "It is a bad scene here. Everyone is in shock."
A students' body of the institute in a statement on Saturday said the TISS administration must immediately revoke the "termination" of the faculty and staff members.
"It is completely a failure of the current leadership of TISS administration in running the institute and apathy of the BJP-led Union government," the Progressive Students Forum claimed.
The "mass termination" is set to create "scarcity" of the teaching and non-teaching staff, the forum said.
The termination of a 100 such positions will directly impact the future of students who are enrolling in the institute, it might also allow for politically motivated appointments in the near future, it said.
"The BJP-led central government and the current TISS administration are directly responsible for taking away the livelihoods of nearly a hundred employees and putting the future of its students also at risk," the forum claimed.
"The recent blunders made by the Ministry of Education in conducting nationwide entrance examinations only add to the incompetence of the central government," it charged.