Chandigarh, January 3: In a relief for faculty members, Panjab University (PU) has reduced the burden of carrying piles of papers for promotions under Career Advancement Scheme (CAS).
Earlier, 10 sets each used to be submitted to screening-cum-evaluation committee and selection committee. The Deputy Registrar, Establishment, issued a letter on Thursday that instead of 10 only four were required for screening-cum-evaluation committee and eight for selection committee.
The directions will be implemented not only in PU teaching departments but also in regional centres and constituent colleges of the varsity.
The action was taken after Senator Dr Praveen Goyal had written to VC Prof Raj Kumar on November 14, 2018, against paper wastage.
According to Dr Goyal, a total of 11 sets are required as the candidate would keep a master copy for himself/herself also. “There are 250 pages in each set. If we take printing cost, which is Rs 2 per page, it comes to Rs 5,500. There will be binding expenses of Rs 30 per set. There will be four stages for about 510 faculty members, including assistant professors and associate professors, who would apply for CAS promotions at various stages. The total expense comes to Rs 1.18 crore,” he said.
He also calculated the paper expenses for about 250 teachers who apply for CAS promotions to senior professor scale as per new UGC amendment (July 2018). “For their promotions, files are bulky and each set would have 350 pages. It comes to Rs 20.07 lakh,” said Dr Goyal and added that in total, it would cost Rs 1.39 crore.
“We could save this amount of paper and environment too,” he said.
Dr Praveen Goyal had earlier too raised the issue of wastage of paper while publishing agendas of the Senate, Syndicate and Board of Finance (BoF). The agendas have to be distributed among members, besides PU officials.
“The agendas should be sent to members, at least to those who are computer savvy, by email. Lakhs of rupees of our cash-strapped university are wasted in publishing only agendas. Then there comes labour and transport cost as these agendas have to be circulated among members,” Dr Goyal said. The issue is still pending before the Senate.
As many as 141 Senate agendas and 45 Syndicate agendas have to be printed for each meeting. In 2017, a total of Rs 50.87 lakh was spent on publishing and distributing agendas of six Senate meetings. Besides paper cost, cost of ink toner, transportation and overtime of employees involved is also included in the figure.
