Ludhiana: PAU contract staff allege anomalies in regularisation

Class IV contractual workers and daily paid labourers at Punjab Agricultural University ask if they were not eligible then why were their applications accepted and were allowed to appear for the first exam

Class IV contractual workers and daily paid labourers at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have alleged irregularities in the university’s regularisation process. Many who have worked at the university for over 10-15 years have been rejected for being over age after their applications were accepted for the initial Punjabi test.

Many who have worked at the university for over 10-15 years have been rejected for being over age after their applications were accepted for the initial Punjabi test. (HT File)

They ask if they were not eligible then why were their applications accepted and were allowed to appear for the first exam. Sandeep Kaur has been designing all magazines, posters and pamphlets that go out from the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) for the last 11 years but now she is looking to get the post of messenger (peons) and even there she’s told she’s not eligible.

She has been working as an illustrator here for the last 11 years. Before that, she worked here for two years as a data entry operator. “I am on a contract that keeps renewing after six months. I left other job opportunities in hopes of being regularised here. But that didn’t happen. Last year, they advertised posts for messengers so I applied. Although the post is lower than I occupy at the moment, I am told that I’m not eligible,” she said.

“If I wasn’t eligible then why did you accept my application in the first place and let me appear for the Punjabi exam?” she asked.

Surinder Kaur has been working as a typist. She too has applied for the post of messenger. However, she was told that she was overaged. “I spent the age here, working and waiting,” she said. Dozens of workers like these two have been working here for over a decade, but have been called ineligible for the posts, which for many would even look like a demotion.

The PAU in June 2023, after three months of protest by the unregularised Class IV workers, advertised 219 posts for messengers and beldar (workers at research farms). In the discussions that led the workers to call off their protest, Jai Singh, a leader of the Class IV workers’ Union, said, included a promise from the university administration that the board will pass a rule allowing those who had become overage to apply for the posts.

However, that didn’t happen. Plus, a month after the applications closed, PAU notified that the workers would have to appear for an exam to prove their eligibility. No subject was mentioned though, claimed the workers.

First in October, around 1,200 of them appeared for the Punjabi test, out of which, 800 of them qualified. However, then they were told that this test was to only ensure if they were from the state. The real test would be 120 papers with English, maths and general knowledge.

“Even though it seems absurd to expect a person, whose job would be to carry correspondence, to know English, maths, and GK, we were still looking forward to it. But then in the list that came out recently many of us, who had qualified the Punjabi exam, were missing,” said Jai.

He alleged that many who didn’t fulfil the criteria of 10 years as daily paid labour or five years in the contract were on the list.

After the workers met the university officials repeatedly, the test was postponed. Director of research Dr AS Dhatt, who is responsible for the regularisation, said, “There is nothing wrong in the process. Everything is according to the rules.” When asked, why was the exam postponed, he replied, “We are just busy.”