40% posts in farm varsities lying vacant

Agriculture Minister B.C. Patil on Friday assured the Legislative Council that he would meet Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to convince him to lift the freeze on recruitment in agriculture universities. He said the Finance Department had frozen the recruitments as part of austerity measures in the times of COVID-19.

His response came after BJP member S.V. Sankanur pointed out that more than 40% of teaching posts in the agriculture universities in Bengaluru, Dharwad, Raichur, and Shivamogga had been lying vacant.

“What kind of quality teaching can you offer? With such a shortage of non-teaching staff, how can you develop the university?” he sought to know.

Mr. Sankanur said in Bengaluru, 223 teaching and 997 non-teaching posts were vacant. In Dharwad, 228 teaching and 655 non-teaching posts were lying vacant. In Raichur, 228 teaching and 553 non-teaching posts, and in Shivamogga, 184 teaching and 404 non-teaching posts were vacant.

He also told the Minister that several other departments, including the Education Department, had received permission from the Finance Department to lift the freeze on recruitment.