THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, May 21: At Nilamber-Pitamber University (NPU) in Daltonganj, a troubling malpractice has reportedly become routine — teachers and non-teaching staff often fudge their leave records while undertaking long-distance travel by train, bus, or car, yet officially remain “on duty.”
This technique, widely known within the university system, allows individuals to avoid being marked absent despite being away.
According to sources, the practice of “stealing leave” is rampant across many colleges and departments within universities in Jharkhand, and Nilamber-Pitamber University is no exception. Both casual and earned leaves are misused without remorse, they added.
Applications Made to Disappear from Records
The method is straightforward. Once an employee avails of leave, the application is often made to disappear — particularly if it hasn’t been entered into the official leave register.
Without the required entry signed by the competent authority — such as the principal, professor in charge, or head of the postgraduate department — there is no official record of the leave being taken.
A college teacher now has 8 days of the CL (casual leave) in one calendar year, from January to December.
Similarly, EL (earned leave) accrues 12 days per annum for a college teacher.
Under the UGC rules, it’s maximum of 300 days of EL for a teacher for the whole length of the service.
On the other hand, a non-teacher has 18 days of CL a year and 33 days of EL per year, said an official of the Nilamber Pitamber University.
There is one more kind of leave. It’s for women. Two days a month. However, women teachers having menopause also avail of the 2-day a month leave, said university sources.
The latest medicals researches have disfavoured any use of two days of leave for a normal biological phenomenon of women.
VC Concerned Over Poor Leave and Service Book Management
Vice Chancellor of the Nilamber Pitamber University, Dr Prof Dinesh Kumar Singh, told this correspondent, “I was appalled at the non-maintenance of leave account of the teachers and non-teachers.”
“There is no proper accounting for leave applied for either by the teacher or non-teacher,” the VC added.
He said, “The common practice is once the man comes from leave and joins his duty and then the first thing that he does is, he makes his leave application disappear.”
Reminded that the disappearance of the leave application can’t be possible without the overt or covert support of the concerned dealing assistant to which the VC said, “It’s very true. Without the support of the dealing assistant, no leave application can so disappear.”
“I am introducing a simple measure which is to record every application for leave granted or denied. There must not be any laxity of it,” added the VC.
A proper maintenance of the leave account helps one who retires.
University official said it was a total of 180 days of EL for teachers who retired on or before 6 August, 2021.
But for teachers whose retirement is after 6 August 2021, a teacher will have a maximum of 300 days of EL.
For non-teachers, it was also 180 days but for those who retired on or before 6 August 2011.
Again it’s the same 300 days EL for the non-teacher who retires beyond 6 August 2011, said the university official.
Neglect of Service Book Also a Major Concern
Again close to the improper or inadequate or absence of maintenance of leave account, the service book of the teacher and the non-teacher is also a huge piece of neglect.
“I am surprised to find here that persons on the verge of retirement start structuring the service book weeks ahead of the actual date of superannuation. The result is chaos of details,” said the VC.
“Let every teacher and non-teacher keep in mind to see that their service book remains duly updated. An updated service book saves the teacher and the non-teacher of many problems when he hangs his boots,” reminded the VC.
The VC has given a dose of care and caution both to the teachers and non-teaching staff not to play false with the leave.
