The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has withdrawn its 'mass termination notice' to over 100 teaching and non-teaching staffers on Sunday. The termination decision had invited staunch criticism from faculty and the student bodies.
TISS said that the discussions with the Tata Education Trust (TET) assured the necessary resources to address the issue.
“Ongoing discussions with the Tata Education Trust have provided assurance that resources will be made available to TISS to resolve this issue. TET has committed to releasing funds for the salaries of TET project/programme faculty and non-teaching staff,” it said in a statement.
The termination notice to all concerned TET Programme faculty and non-teaching staff is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect, it said.
The contracts of the teaching and non-teaching at four TISS campuses- Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad and Guwahati--were due to end on June 30.
The non-renewal of contracts was announced on June 28.
Progressive Students Forum, a students' body of the institute, in a statement on Saturday had urged the TISS administration to revoke the termination of the faculty and staff members immediately.
"It is completely a failure of the current leadership of TISS administration in running the institute and apathy of the BJP-led Union government," it said.
It also added that the mass termination will create a "scarcity" of teaching and non-teaching staff.
"The BJP-led central government and the current TISS administration are directly responsible for taking away the livelihoods of nearly a hundred employees and putting the future of its students also at risk," the forum said.
"The recent blunders made by the Ministry of Education in conducting nationwide entrance examinations only add to the incompetence of the central government," it added.
TISS, established in 1936 is a Deemed University, fully funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC). It is governed by the TISS Society. The contracts for the teaching and non-teaching staff were funded by grants from Tata Trust.
