LUCKNOW, May 26 -- The Lucknow University Teachers' Association (LUTA) has lost its sheen over time and those in the fray for this year's LU teachers' body polls to be held on Saturday (May 31) feel there is a need to work for making the body more vocal and active so that it could speak for teachers' rights in an emphatic way. Some former LU professors and former LUTA office-bearers also echoed similar views. LUTA currently has 405 members ranging from assistant professors, associate professors to professors. LUTA's former president and general secretary, Neeraj Jain, said that the association was always powerful and had its own voice when it came to the welfare of teachers. "For the past few years, the LUTA has stopped speaking for the rights of teachers. The office-bearers had become self-centred which led to the problems of teachers taking the back seat. Back in those days, LUTA's voice stopped the Mayawati government from changing the name of the university, and forced the Mulayam Singh Yadav government to change several decisions in favour of the teachers," said Jain. Adding to this, he said that a good organisation is one which commends the good initiatives of the government and university authorities and condemns the ones troubling teachers. "LUTA should have thought of ways to enhance the standards, academics and social standards of the university. Had the vice-chancellor not worked in the direction the university would not have dealt with various problems. I believe there should be a dynamic and more vocal LUTA," Jain added. Sharing how LUTA was powerful at one point of time, former vice-chancellor, Prof Roop Rekha Verma, said that once she and a few others had entered the organisation. "In the 1980s, teachers were dealing with a crisis when LUTA had called for an all UP teachers' convention which led to formation of Federation of UP Residential Universities," said Prof Verma. Former head of department, public administration, Prof Manoj Dixit, also said that LUTA was strong and unified when Lucknow University, Medical College and Engineering College were together as a unit and it used to fight for various causes from teachers' promotions to rights for leaves and medical facilities. "There were problems with the office-bearers of the last LUTA when the administration started manipulating the organisation as they lost the power to negotiate, making LUTA meaningless. A unified teachers' association which once stood as a guard for teachers, lost the cause. This is for the first time we saw LUTA helpless. I still remember one of my teachers who was leading the association refused to go to then vice-chancellor Harikrishna Awasthi's house because he wanted to serve the cause of the teachers," said Prof Dixit. Vineet Kumar Verma, former general secretary and former president of LUTA who has nominated himself for the post of president this year, said when he was an office-bearer, the association stood strongly against the common syllabus in the university which was discussed to be brought under New Education Policy. "The common syllabus was like a dent on the autonomy of the university and it was LUTA's campaign which did not allow it to be implemented in the university, while other state universities did implement it. We also agitated for the purpose of promotion of teachers but once our tenure ended, an inequality began seeping into the process of promotion. Besides, there has been no agitation or protest in the last two years. Even the general body meeting was not called even after demands from teachers," said Verma. Another candidate, Prof Amita Kanaujia said that she nominated herself for the post of general secretary as she believed there was a need for people who could speak for the rights of teachers. "From allocation and renovation of houses to gender related issues like clean washrooms, creche, there are several issues left neglected for a while. When I joined the university, I found LUTA to be very vocal which became internally weak with time. We need dedicated and sincere people who are vocal enough and can rejuvenate the existence of LUTA," said Kanaujia. Rajendra Kumar Verma, who is also contesting for the post of general secretary, said that LUTA used to be an independent body with no interference from the administration. "There has been an agitation among the teachers due to delays in various teacher related works. LUTA should be empowered so that issues like promotions, basic facilities, PhD increment and others can be taken up and there is no compromise with the self-respect of teachers," said Verma....