There are allegations of violation in recruitment rules in appointing one permanent and two ad-hoc basis teachers at the Department of Persian Language and Literature of Chittagong University.
The CU authorities, however, are adamant on holding the recruitment test defying an order of the High Court (HC).
According to sources, the Selection Board meeting was held on September 14 last for the appointment of three teachers in the department but the Board recommended appointing five teachers as against those three posts.
Moreover, according to the recruitment rules of the university, inclusion of an expert on the concerned subject is a must in any Selection Board. Though this rule was followed during all earlier recruitments, it was not followed during the said selection. Concerned departmental teachers and officials, however, have expressed their anger in this connection.
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It is learnt, on June-14, 2019, the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Iftekhayer Uddin Chowdhury ended. Just 24-day before the end of his tenure, an Appointment Notice for teachers was published in a national daily on May 16 and the last date of submission of application was mentioned at the notice was on May-26.
As a result, the applicants got only 10-day of time to submit the applications. Of the ten-day, nine -day was weekly holidays and the Summer vacation. So, the applicants got only one working day to finish all formalities to submit their applications.
Moreover, there are allegations that the only website of the Chittagong University from which the applicants were supposed to collect their Application forms was also inactive during that period. Under such a situation, many interested applicants failed to collect the application forms and submit those in due time.
According to sources, part-time teacher of Persian Language under Modern Language Institute of Dhaka University Md Kamal Hossain had sent a letter to the Registrar of Chittagong University appealing to him to extend the timeframe of submission of the applications from May-26. However, the CU authorities did not respond to his appeal.
Moreover, failing to submit the application in due time, a candidate filed a writ petition with the High Court (Writ No 8249/2019) and the HC issued a rule mentioning why they said appointment notice should not be declared illegal and also directed the concerned authorities of CU to settle the issue of the application with the candidate. But, the CU authorities refused through a written letter to accept the application of the candidate and continued with the selection process without the disposal of the rule.
The writ petitioner at the HC Md Kamal Hossain informed, the writ contains two parts. One of those was why the Appointment Notice should not be declared illegal without the extension of the time frame of the last date of submission of the application and to dispose of the appeal of the applicant within a 15-day period.
Though the varsity authorities have informed him in writing that it was not possible to accept his application, the authorities did not settle the second rule of the HC which mentioned why the Appointment Notice should not be declared illegal without the extension of time of submission of the application. Even, he alleged, the university authorities did not attend the hearing of the writ petition.
According to sources, though the former Vice-Chancellor Dr Iftekhayer Uddin Chowdhury attempted to complete the recruitment process soon, it was not possible to end the process because of the completion of his tenure.
The Selection Board for the recruitment of that time was formed with the Chairman of Persian Language and Literature of DU Professor Dr Mohammad Bahauddin and Professor of the Department of Persian Language and Literature of CU DrMdAbul Hashem. After the end of terms of the Board, another Selection Board was formed in 2020.
In this newly formed Selection Board, Dean of Arts and Humanities as well as Professor of the Department of Bangla of CU Dr Mohammad Mohibul Aziz and Professor of Modern Language Institute of Dhaka University Shamim Banu were included as members but none of the subject experts was included as the board member. Moreover, another ex officio member of the board was CU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Shirin Akhter of the Department of Bangla.
Professor Dr Mohammad Mohibul Aziz in this connection informed the Bangladesh Post that DU Professor Shamim Banu has been included as an expert in the Selection Board but he failed to say why he was included as a member of the board.
When asked since the term of the selection board has lapsed and nearly two-year have been spent afterwards and by this time many students have completed their courses from various institutions of the country and so why a fresh Appointment Notice was not published to include those freshers as applicants? Registrar (In charge) of CU Monirul Hasan in this connection said those who have applied according to the earlier advertisement should of course be called for appearing in the interview. The selection board won't be cancelled. But, fresh advertisements may be published for the vacant posts, if any.
Meanwhile, only one week of time was given to collect the admit cards for the Viva-voce tests. These admit cards were sent through the post office but one of the applicants did not receive the card in due time while another attended the viva tests without any admit card.
Shahida Akhter who did not get the admit card even after applying, informed her house is at Netrokona and it takes two days to reach Chittagong from her house, still, she submitted her application in due time but his admit card was not issued. She said she has no idea why the varsity authorities were finishing the recruitment so hastily.
Chairman of the department of Persian Language and Literature of CU Abdul Karim refused to comment on the issue.
SM Monirul Hasan, Registrar (In charge) of CU in this connection mentioned the expert in the selection board has a degree in Persian Language but he serves with the Modern Language Institute and taught Persian.
Commenting over the writ petition with the HC he mentioned, the writ has been faced legally. Regarding the complaints of non-receiving of the Admit Cards by the candidates, he said, the applications must be submitted within the time frame; otherwise, those (applications) will not be accepted.
