IMPHAL, February 23: A state cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi was held at the Cabinet Secretariat today.
Out of a total nine agendas tabled at the meeting which started at 3 pm, only one agenda was deferred while the cabinet adopted resolutions on the ramining eight following discussions.
Briefing the media later, Moirangthem Okendro Singh, government spokesperson who is also the Minister of Education and CAF and PD said that today’s cabinet meeting resolved to increase the service age of college lecturers of the Government of Manipur from 62 to 65 years as per the guidelines of the University Grant Commission (UGC) as in other states like Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
He further added that Government college lecturers will not be designated as lecturers but as Assistant Professor or Associate Professor etc.
Minister M Oken further added that the matter of lecturers of 12 Aided colleges will be looked into in earnest.
He observed that what can be done concerning lecturers from among the aided college lecturers as per the norms of UGC would be seen while appealing to the lecturers to discharge their duties well and stay for at least about four and five hours in the colleges instead of thinking that his/her duties are over after their classes.
He also added that efforts will be made to implement the Rastriya Uchchtra Sikshya Abhiyan (RUSA) introduced by the Government of India for imparting up-to-date and good education to the students of higher education in the state.
On the other hand, advertisements and notifications to fill the vacant posts of regular principals at the earliest will be brought out and appointed through UGC guidelines through the Manipur Public Service Commission, he said.
It may be noted that the number of sanctioned teachers of 28 government colleges is 1303.
There are only 1090 lecturers with 35 lecturers set to retire from service in February this year.
Referring to part-time lecturers in the state, he said that there are 355 part-time lecturers in category A, 76 lecturers in category B and 53 guest lecturers. The government will look into matters including their honorarium, he added.
Another resolution of the state cabinet was the draft proposal of the Imphal Municipal Council (IMC) being approved following its confirmation.
The other resolution passed by the state cabinet has approved for 21 posts of staff Nurses/GNM of the government and 200 posts of ANM to be recruited on a regular basis.
On the other hand, the cabinet meeting also resolved to recruit 13 posts of assistant conservator of forest (grade –II) under the Manipur Forest Service (MFS) through MPSC.