Librarians are doing Scientific Work Mr. Gautam Bahl revealed the following: As per the letter dated 9th May, 2005 of ministry of HRD, Deptt. of secondary and higher education to The Secretary, U.G.C. has denied to to revise the Career Advancement Scheme for Librarians and Physical Education Teachers on the following reasons: 1. No absolute parity of these categories of personnel involved in the subject case with teachers in universities and colleges has been conceded. 2. The Rastogi committee has recommended different treatment to categories of teachers on the one hand and categories like Astt. Registrars, Librarians, physical education instructors on the other in Universities and colleges, in whose cases the committee had recommended only for the continuance of the existing CAS / existing path of carrier advancement including the continuance of existing residency period; there is no case/scope for considering benefits over and above these recommendations. In this regard, I think that the recommendation of the UGC and decision of the Govt. of India on the matter is highly unscientific and biased. All the research agencies of the Govt. of India such as DRDO, CSIR, ISRO, DAE, etc. give full parity to their library professionals with their other scientists. In these agencies, the designation, scale of pay, career advancement scheme, retirement age, etc. are same to all categories, including librarians. If the Govt. of India is providing parity to the librarians of its research agencies, why the UGC is denying the similar parity to its Librarians. Moreover, the recruitment qualifications and other terms are same for teachers and librarians. It is not justifiable to equate the librarians with the Assistant/Deputy Registrars. I strongly believe that, this may be the reason to change the designation of librarians by the Govt. of Andra Pradesh into Lecturers/Assistant Professors. In the Agricultural Universities in India, the designation of Physical Education Teachers is Assistant/Associate Professors as in the case of other teachers. In these context, how the UGC can enforce its new rules ?. The act of the UGC will finally reflect in the quality of education and research. In future, this field will become unattractive to the best candidates. So, it is the duty of everybody to get it rectified the decision of the UGC. A.T. FRANCIS ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN KERALA AGTRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com