The Osmania University Teachers’ Association (OUTA) on Thursday has resolved not to sign the joining reports of the candidates recently selected to the Ph.D courses till K. Narender and M. Srinath Reddy, faculty of the Department of Communication and Journalism, join the department again.
The OUTA president, B. Satyanarayana said that both the teachers were on leave fearing for their safety and it was the responsibility of the university administration to ensure that all the teachers were “safe and confident to discharge duties without fear”.
Dr. Narender was punched last month by a student in front of the Vice-Chancellor in his chambers which led to the teachers launching a protest demanding security on the issue of Ph.D admissions. A few days ago a group of students assaulted Prof. Laxmaiah, Dean, Students’ Welfare, and Head of Geography Department over a new course. The OUTA said stringent action should be taken against people involved in the assaults and held a dharna at the OU administrative building on Thursday protesting against what they called increasing ‘intimidating threats and attacks’ on the teachers.
The dharna was addressed by Chukka Ramaiah and K. Nageshwar, MLCs; Prof. Laxmaiah and former OU Vice Chancellor, T. Tirupati Rao among others. The speakers condemned the attacks and said such atmosphere doesn’t augur well for the university as a whole. “The administration has failed to curb the repeated attacks and we demand security to teachers and action against the culprits,” Prof. Satyanarayana, later said in a statement. The OUTA had originally called for a mass dharna on Monday itself after Prof. Laxmaiah was assaulted but postponed it due to the visit of a UGC expert committee.
The UGC had recently recognised OU as University with Potential for Excellence, which would ensure additional funds to improve research facilities and other academic activities.
