The TATA Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has dismissed nearly 100 of its staff as the institute has not received funds from the Tata Trust to support the employees, reports said.More then 50 faculty and 60 non teaching contractual staff were left unemployed. They were with the institute for over a decade.”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,” PTI quoted a faculty member as saying on condition of anonymity. “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 said.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 said.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 said.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 said.”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.“Most of us have been working for as many as 10-15 years, including in positions of responsibilities such as centre heads. We are unsure how the institute plans to run the courses after this arbitrary dismissal of such a large number of employees without having an alternative ready,” a faculty member from the Mumbai campus was quoted as saying by The Indian Express report.Among the teaching staff, 20 of those dismissed were learnt to be from Mumbai campus, 15 from Hyderabad, 14 from Guwahati, and six from Tuljapur. The remaining teaching staff on TISS campuses are permanent faculty members on the University Grants Commission (UGC) payroll, according to The Indian Express.“The institution has already written to the Tata Education Trust. A committee has been formed to pursue the matter with the Trust. If the grants are received, this can be reverted. But in case of no change in situation, there is no alternative. The institute will have to find alternative ways to run the courses,” said Acting Vice Chancellor Prof Manoj Tiwari. According to a member of the administration, The Indian Express added, there are plans to propose that the same faculty members work on hourly basis to enable teaching to continue, while also preparing a complete roster of required positions to issue advertisements for regular appointments.(With inputs from PTI)
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