The North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Joint Action Committee (JAC) has accused the University’ Vice Chancellor of violating statutory provisions.
The JAC also questioned the VC for not convening the University’s court.
A statement issued by JAC chairman Prof. X.P. Mao and co-chairman Arnon D. Arengh on Thursday evening expressed deep concerns at alleged violation of statutory provisions by the Vice Chancellor.
The NEHU’s JAC comprised the North Eastern Hill University Students’ Union (NEHUSU), North Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) and North-Eastern Hill University Non-Teaching Staff Association (NEHUNSA).
“Many of the statements made in the press release by NEHU administration are far from truth,” the JAC alleged.
“By not convening the University court, the Vice Chancellor has misled the Parliament by sending unauthorized annual report which contains financial and academic accounts and reports of the university,” the JAC claimed.
The JAC further said, “By not convening the court, the Vice Chancellor has also given rise to a situation of no supervision by the highest authority of the University, which is the court and which has to be mandatorily convened every year.”
The JAC also said in the recently-held University court, anomalies committed by the VC were pointed out by members of the court.
The members of the University court included MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha raised voice against not presenting the annual reports, annual accounts and budget estimates before the court prior to submitting these to the Parliament.
“For this serious violation by the VC, the court meeting had to be adjourned,” the JAC statement said.
“The entire functioning of the university, all sections, examinations and departments are handicapped and compromised because the VC has not owned up to his responsibilities for omissions and commissions,” it added.
As the annual report of the university was not passed by the court, the JAC said that matters related to delay in publication of results of students was not monitored by the court.
“The NAAC accreditation, for example, is the product of hard work by students, researchers, teachers and non-teaching employees of the university, for which the VC cannot alone claim any credit,” the JAC pointed out.
Saying that most of the time, the VC spent time outside NEHU, the JAC stated that an RTI is filed on his presence/absence in the university, to which reply is still pending.
“Claims about renovation of hostels, roads etc. do not reflect true picture as there is regular power and water failure that affect students and teachers at the height of a semester because of poor quality of work,” the JAC pointed out.
The JAC also reminded the VC that special funds were allocated by the Central government under NEIPA to construct hostels and M.Ed building since 2007 which the VC has no credit for it.
It is to be reminded that “many students are yet to get accommodation in hostels” and empty buildings are occupied by paramilitary forces without any statutory approval.
“Under the present VC, no significant infrastructure work is done, as the University is without a University Engineer,” the JAC claimed.
“It is run on the basis of arbitrary 10% less than the tender value and work orders are allotted without proper tendering process,” it said.
“If there is no statutory violation, why there is pick and choose in appointment of Deans by violating statute on seniority that prohibits any appointment without following seniority of teachers,” the JAC slammed.
The JAC further said half truths in circulation in the name of self-laudatory note by the VC, demeans the high office of the Vice-Chancellor and brings bad tidings for the university as a whole.
“An erring, absent and incompetent Vice-Chancellor has brought down the hard work of university stakeholder to null, and it needs urgent course correction,” the JAC further said.
The JAC urged the Central government and all other responsible agencies to look into serious statutory violation and its adverse consequence in terms of academic, administrative and financial mismanagement of the university as such.