We, the Terminated Teachers of Bengal College of Engineering & Technology and Bengal College of Engineering & Technology for Women (under the umbrella of SKS Group of Institutions, Durgapur) are pleading on behalf of the Teachers & Students for your kind intervention to save our family’s lives & to save the future of the education system. We have been terminated dictatorially just for raising our collective voice against the detrimental policies of the College Authority. We are without any income for more than 2 months & our family’s future is shrouded in total darkness. Herein we would like to draw your kind attention to the following matter.

The autocratic attitude, the willful conduct and the repressive measures of SKSgi authorities have been ailing us for a pretty long period since many years. Of late, we have raised a united voice of protest, peacefully, against all this. We also registered our protest without hampering the academic activities. Simultaneously, we drew a 17-point charter of demands (Modified Annexure-I after consultation with the management) and submitted the same to the management for their consideration. The management conveyed it to us that they would require some time to respond to the aforesaid demands. Ten days elapsed since we submitted the charter to them. Meanwhile, we have been taking classes and conducting lab sessions regularly. To be more precise, we have been doing our best in the best interests of our beloved students, thereby cooperating with the management. But unfortunately enough, the management is not, in return, doing the same to us. Rather, they are only dilly-dallying and taking advantage of our love for and sense of duty towards our students. What is more, they are adopting all kinds of repressive and coercive measures to strangle our collective voice. On 12th August the management has, rather suddenly, served a termination notice to 22 Faculty Members and Lab Assistants without citing any bona fide reason. To crown it all, on 13th August 13 more teachers have been terminated & the terminated teachers residing on campus were suddenly asked to vacate overnight their quarters inside the campus of Bengal College of Engineering & Technology, Durgapur. And on 16th August the management has issued a warning letter to the rest of the undersigned faculty members to resume classes without any condition within 20th August, failing which they would be penalized. The management also cleared off the monetary dues (salary of 12 days for this month) of all the terminated teachers on 16th August thereby spreading a message of shock among all of us & leaving all our family’s future shrouded in total darkness. Moreover, the management threatened the students so that they stop supporting this movement against the management’s detrimental policies. The management also shamefully pressurized & terminated two of the senior most Professors, Prof. Dr. S. Dasgupta & Prof. Dr. R. N. Mukherjee, for leading our collective voice against the management’s policy of depriving both students & teachers in these institutions under the umbrella of SKS Group of Institutions, Durgapur. By 21st August, 2014 the total no of terminated faculties are 92. To crown above all, on 20th August, College management has suspended 250 students from hostel because they have also protested. By 21st August 20 students have been suspended from college for the same. College management is regularly threatening students regarding internal marks, not allow in campus placements etc. to suppress their united voice. The chairman of SKSgi Mr. Satish Kumar Sharma also verbally threatened us as he is a listed BJP supporter from U.P. So, he can manage CENTRAL Govt.

The list of anomalies that are existent in these Institutes for many years, which is killing the education system here & is shrouding the Student's & Teacher's lives in darkness, are as follows:-

 I.There is no uniform Pay Policy. There is no implementation of proper 6th pay scale, as per AICTE norms, in the colleges. Confirmation letter is not awarded to employees even after the successful completion of their probationary period. Several excuses are given along-with false accusing of unsatisfactory performance based on a completely faulty Student feedback system. There is no provision for gratuity too.

II.Non-existence of proper HR Policy. No proper implementation of 5 working days per week (40hrs per week) rule as per WBUT. Inhuman policies of the College are prevailing like there is no provision for Medical Leave, Maternity Leave.

III.Inadequate supply of reference books to the students from the college library. If the syllabus gets revised, books as per the new syllabus are not procured & the students remain helpless. Although the student intake has increased over the years, the procurement of the required books still remains low.

IV.There are inadequate laboratory and internet facilities in the colleges & hostels. These facilities have not been scaled up with the increasing student in-take.

V.The hostel food quality remains poor. Immense electrical problems and water crisis in the hostels are prevalent too.

VI.Proper Academic environment is disrupted as Teachers are forcefully engaged in various promotional activities of the college round the year which are below the dignity of teachers (starting from school visits at far-off places, tele-calling to leaflet distribution at railway stations, bus-stands from 4:00am morning). These non-academic activities by the teachers lead to heavy disruption of regular classes & hampering the academics, but still the College Authority remains completely ignorant of this fact.

VII.Lack of providing necessary facilities against the fees collected by the colleges.

VIII.Fake company recruitment policies are adopted by the college and standard companies for placement are not arranged for the students.

IX.Good Experienced Faculties are not retained & compelled to leave the college.

X.The Teacher-Student ratio is never maintained as per the AICTE norm (1 Teacher per 15 Students).

XI.New experienced teachers are kept on a probationary period thereby ignoring their work experience. This results in non-recruitment of experienced teachers.

XII.Lack of efficient personnel with relevant experience in the Training & Placement department resulting in poultry placements.

XIII.Faculty & Lab Assistants are not facilitated for attending at-least 2 conferences/seminars/workshops per annum.

XIV.There is no predefined generic service rule in the colleges. The college authority has kept the employees on a hire & fire basis. Teachers are terminated of their service without any proper reason or validation, no proper procedure is followed before taking any disciplinary action. The teacher’s & student’s fate lie in the hands of the greedy & ruthless College Authority.

XV.The service of the present employees are under total insecurity as they are often threatened to be terminated of their service arbitrarily whenever the authority is questioned for any of these deficiencies.

At many times we are receiving the answer from some authorities that this is a private institution so they can’t intervene. But is this acceptable? This is a social issue & the question of the education system of the state.  As we all have faith on you & your system, we are eagerly waiting for your necessary action in this regard to alleviate our sufferings from the hands of an ogre like employer & save all our lives and save the Education System. 

We request you to kindly intervene in the matter and do the needful at the earliest.