Tirupati, June 14: It is interesting to note that the TTD-run Sr i Venkateswara Ayurvedic College here, the only such college in the Rayalaseema region offering graduate and postgraduate courses in the traditional Indian medicine system, has faculty members more from Telangana than from other regions.
A glance at the composition of the faculty reveals the dominance of people hailing from Telangana – including professors, readers and assistant professors – in the college.
This information is of interest in the wake of the demand for separate Telangana becoming a burning issue and the flare-up of regional passions.
The Ayurvedic teachers from Telangana see nothing odd about it, asserting that they were appointed on consideration of merit and in accordance with rules. According to TTD educational officer Nagaraja, the TTD recruits teachers at the state level but gives admissions students on the zonal basis just as in the case of admissions to the engineering and medical colleges in the state.
But the Rayalaseema Ayurvedic Doctors’ Association (RADA) disputes Nagaraja’s claim, saying that the TTD Trust Board had decided as long back as 1992 to follow the state government’s policy in recruitment of teachers, which means zonal system, which is being in vogue in other government Ayurvedic colleges at Warangal and Vijayawada but not being followed by the SV Ayurvedic College.
The association submitted a memorandum to the Sri Krishna Committee in March, giving a detailed account of the `injustice’ to Rayalaseema in the appointment of faculty members since 1985. Association president T Suresh and secretary G Ramesh Babu said the TTD had not followed zonal system and GO 610, leading to selection of people from other regions. They alleged that some vested interests misguided the management.
In its letter to the Sri Krishna Committee, RADA said that of the 34 teachers of the college, those from Telangana are 18, coastal Andhra nine and Rayalaseema just six.
There are five professors from Telangana as against two from Rayalaseema and none from coastal Andhra. In the case of assistant professors, there are five each from Telangana and coastal Andhra, and a lone one from Rayalaseema.
Of the lecturers, eight are from Telangana, five from coastal Andhra and three from Rayalasseema.
The RADA has resolved to press the TTD management to follow the zonal system in the recruitment of teachers and to do justice to the Rayalaseema region in which the college is situated.
——–Agencies