Bhubaneswar: A day after BJD MP Prasanna Acharya drew the attention of the House to the 23 posts lying vacant in Central University of Orissa, Koraput, local MP Saptagiri Ulaka apprised Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal about the sorry state of affairs though a letter on Thursday.
“Even after ten years of establishment, the Central University of Orissa is grappling with severe shortage of teaching staff. It is the only university in India where there is no single professor,” the lone Congress MP from Odisha wrote.
As against 154 sanctioned teaching staff posts, including professors, associate professors and assistant professors, the varsity has only one associate professor and 16 assistant professors for its 14 departments, he further said.
Ulaka urged the Centre to intervene in the matter to improve higher education in the tribal-dominated district.
Koraput was one of the backward regions in the country selected by the then UPA government for the establishment of new central universities. The objective was to offer quality education in remote and backward regions of the country.
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On Wednesday, Acharya has said that if the Centre was concerned about the 7,000 positions lying vacant in the central universities, CUO would top the list.
Earlier, raising the issue in Lok Sabha, BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab had said that CUO was functioning with only 11-12 teachers.
