Jaipur, Sept. 4 -- Nearly 63.57% posts for teaching staff are lying vacant across 16 universities in Rajasthan run by the Higher Education department, showed data collected from officials. Of the 2,512 sanctioned posts, these universities are functioning with only 915 facilities while 1,597 are vacant, revealed the latest data of the department. A total of 2,298 non-teaching posts are also vacant against 4,366 sanctioned ones. A further classification of the data showed that the maximum 541 vacancies have been reported in University of Rajasthan as opposed to the sanctioned 949 teaching posts followed by 306 in Jai Narayan Vyas University in Jodhpur against 481 posts, 147 in MBM UNiversity Jodhpur against 200 posts, and 98 in Mohan Lal Sukhadia University in Udaipur against its 260 posts. Maximum vacancies in the non-teaching posts were also seen in Rajasthan University with 1016 vacancies against 1692 posts followed by 255 in MBM JOdhpur against 307 posts, 251 in Mohan Lal Sukhadia University against 485 posts. An official from the department familiar to the matter said, "The department is making a list of the vacant posts and will soon notify the recruitment process." However, following a cabinet meeting on Sunday, the government declared to hire people based on a 5-year contract across the colleges under Rajasthan College Education Society which sparked a political slugfest. After the meeting Deputy CM Prem Chand Bairwa said the Rajasthan College Education Society (RAJ SES), formed in 2020 during the previous government, currently oversees 374 colleges across the state. These colleges have a total of 10,594 sanctioned positions, including 5,299 academic and 5,295 non-academic posts, all of which are presently vacant. Teaching work in these colleges is currently being managed through Vidya Sambal. Recruitment will be conducted for 4,724 academic and non-academic contractual positions. For 3,540 academic posts, recruitment will follow UGC norms, considering candidates qualified through NET/SET/SLATE/PhD. The service tenure for all personnel hired through these recruitments will be five years. Commenting on the matter, the LoP, Tikaram Jully, said, "Government has no intention to fill up the vacant posts. Rather, they are only trying to launch an Agniveer model in higher education by hiring people based on a contract for five years instead of regular mode." He said, "Under this scheme, the faculty will be appointed on a temporary basis at a minimum salary for only 5 years. It only means that the government is trying to push education into a contract system by making some 'Shiksha Veers'."...