<p>The order has sparked controversy, with several govt college teachers raising objections.</p> — The order has sparked controversy, with several govt college teachers raising objections.

Kolkata: A recent govt order issued by the state higher education dept has asked teachers at govt colleges to obtain prior permission before leaving the city to attend national or international meetings, conferences, and workshops. The order has sparked controversy, with several govt college teachers raising objections.

It states that before participating in any national or international meetings and conferences, teachers must obtain prior permission from the dept. The order also says that, to ensure proper documentation and facilitate relevant insights, they must submit a detailed report to the principal or officer-in-charge of their respective colleges within 15 days of the completion of the meetings and conferences. College principals or officers-in-charge have been asked to submit a compiled report to the higher education dept.

Debasish Sarkar, general secretary of the Government College Teachers’ Association, said, “It’s a completely superfluous and baseless order because, for attending international meetings and conferences, we must take prior permission from the state govt, but now they have added national-level meetings and conferences to it, which is not acceptable because academic activities would be hampered by this. We are protesting against it and will write a letter to the DPI against it.”

However, dept officials do not see anything wrong with it, highlighting that the order came from the chief secretary and that its purpose is the proper documentation of every activity of govt college teachers to avoid “unnecessary controversy”.