Reservation in promotions: PU prepares draft policy, invites suggestions

The draft policy has been shared with the PU staff members and suggestions/corrections have been invited till August 2

Over three months after Panjab University (PU) senate’s approval, the university has finally prepared a draft policy on reservation in promotions for the non-teaching staff.

As per the draft, earmarking of reservation is based on the department of personnel and training (DoPT) guidelines of 1997. (HT Photo)

The draft has been shared with the staff members and suggestions/corrections have been invited till August 2. The suggestions can be made in writing to the deputy registrar (establishment).

Prior to the senate meeting on March 27, the Punjab government had informed the university that pending grants for the 2021-22 financial year will lapse if the reservation in promotion was not implemented soon.

Therefore, immediately after the senate’s decision in March, PU had formed a committee to collect quantifiable data for implementation of the policy, whose draft was formulated after the panel held its meeting recently.

As per the draft, earmarking of reservation is based on the department of personnel and training (DoPT) guidelines of 1997. It proposes 15% reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) staff members and 5% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) staffers. Every seventh position in a particular cadre will be reserved for SC and every 20th position for ST staff for promotions.

President of PU’s SC, ST, BC Employees’ Welfare Association, Harpreet Singh said, “The university has finally readied the draft roster, but we request the authorities to implement the policy at the earliest for timely benefit to staff members.”

Before the March 27 meeting of the PU senate, the Panjab University General Category (welfare) Association (PUGCA) had written to the Vice-President of India, opposing the implementation of reservation in promotion.

Meanwhile, a senior university official said the pending grant of last financial year had been released by the Punjab government. After the senate gave its in-principle approval to adopt the policy, the varsity had written to the Punjab government requesting them to release the pending grant of over ₹7 crore for 2021-22.