AAP teachers' wing delegation meets Delhi OBC panel head over death of former ad hoc lecturer

NEW DELHI: A delegation of Aam Aadmi Party's teachers' wing AADTA met with Delhi State OBC Commission Chairman Jagdish Yadav and demanded an inquiry into the death of Samarveer, a former ad hoc teacher of Hindu College.

Delhi University teachers have alleged that the massive displacement of ad hoc teachers was the reason behind the death of the young faculty member Samarveer. Samarveer allegedly died by suicide on April 26 in the Rani Bagh area. A delegation of Academic for Action and Development Delhi Teachers' Association (AADTA) led by its national incharge Aditya Narayan Misra met Yadav on Monday. The delegation demanded inquiry into the suicide by Samarveer, who was a former ad hoc teacher of Hindu College and belonged to the OBC community, the AADTA said in a statement.

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"They also made a written submission in the case," it added. Samarveer had been an adhoc teacher under the OBC category in the Hindu College since 2017 till he was "unceremoniously removed" from the interviews for permanent positions on February 9 this year, the statement alleged.

"Massive displacements of ad hoc and temporary teachers in the ongoing interviews in the University of Delhi (DU) have taken a very heavy toll by taking away the life of a young faculty member, Samarveer, who committed suicide on April 26 in Rani Bagh," the AADTA said in the written submission. "Samarveer represents that stellar breed of brilliant scholars who are star teachers, intensely admired by the students and colleagues.

Also Read | ‘Institutional murder’: Hindu College ad hoc teacher who lost job allegedly dies by suicide

A quiet, prolific reader and deep, original thinker, Samarveer was often seen reading in a corner of the otherwise noisy staff room of Hindu College," the submission noted. After the OBC expansion plan in 2004, thousands of teachers from socially weaker sections joined DU as ad hoc teachers and have been working for a long time with job insecurities, it claimed. "Most of these teachers are first-generation learners coming from poor and rural backgrounds without many elite connections.

After a long struggle, they have reached so far, and loss of a job at this juncture leaves them in the lurch with depression and desperation," the submission stated. "So, we request you to inquire into factors and forces holistically which has driven a well-qualified OBC faculty member to commit suicide. Justice should be dispensed to Samarveer so that such fateful incident doesn't recur," the submission added. The delegation comprised Anand Prakash, Member DU Teachers' Association Executive, Ramkishore Yadav, Memer of Academic Council and DUTA Executive, Prem Chand, Member, the AADTA National Committee, and Assistant Professor Sarvendra Kumar.