Nagpur: The Nagpur University has received overwhelming response to an advertisement for teaching posts on contractual basis. About 700 applicants evinced interest in the 92 posts advertised by NU for its postgraduate departments, Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT), and Barrister Sheshrao Wankhede College of Education.The massive response trashes claims by private colleges that there is shortage of qualified candidates with NET/SET or PhD in state. NU was forced to advertise these posts after Maharashtra government failed to lift its moratorium on recruitment of teachers, imposed over a year ago.With 149 of the 334 sanctioned posts vacant, alarm bells started ringing, forcing NU to take the difficult decision to prevent any further damage.Board of examination and evaluation director Neeraj Khaty, who is holding additional charge of registrar, told TOI that they had already started scrutiny of the applications. He, however, remained non-committal on date of interviews, clarifying that it was a long and tedious procedure.“Though we’re trying to fill the posts as soon as possible, it’s not as easy as it seems, since we need to follow entire procedure mentioned in the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016. We had earlier set a target of September 1, but it’s impossible in the current situation.”Further explaining the process, he said after scrutiny, NU would need to find experts in various subjects and appoint them on interview panels. “Even the interviews can’t be conducted simultaneously, and would take some time,” he said.These 92 posts would be appointed on 11-month contracts, and would be paid remuneration of Rs24,000 per month. NU was in dire need of appointing teachers as many of its existing teachers are retiring at a fast pace. According to Khaty, the vacancies had almost touched 200, though the official figures show it to be 149.NU officials speculated that the entire process would take at least four to six months to be completed, and therefore the current batch of students would not get any benefit. Last year, NU advertised 63 permanent teaching posts of professor, associate professor and assistant professor to fill up vacancies.The interviews were however cancelled after government stopped recruitment across the state.Sanctioned & Working Teaching Staff In NU----------------------- Sanctioned --------------------------- Working --------------------VacantDepts --------------- 245----------------------------------------136--------------------------109LIT ------------------- 62-----------------------------------------34----------------------------28BEd ----------------- 21-----------------------------------------11---------------------------10Total ----------------334----------------------------------------185--------------------------149(* As per position before start of academic session)

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