Dimapur, Aug. 22 (EMN): The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) has expressed ‘deep concerns’ at what it stated was continuing violation of statutory provisions by the university’s vice-chancellor.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the committee stated that many of the press releases issued by the NEHU administration were far from truth. “By not convening university court, the vice-chancellor has misled the Parliament by sending unauthorised annual report which contains financial and academic accounts and reports of the university.
“By not convening court, the vice-chancellor has 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 questions this deliberate non-convening of the court. The JAC asks whether there were anything to hide from the court, especially the arbitrary condition of quotes 10% below the tender cost that has resulted into arbitrary award of contract and consequent poor quality of infrastructure work and maintenance,” read the statement.
As the annual report of the university was not passed by the court, matters related to delay in publication of results of students was not monitored by the court, it stated.
“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,” it stated.
Claims about renovation of hostels, roads etc., do not reflect the 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 committee claimed.
It reminded that VC that special funds were allocated by the central government under NEIPA to construct hostels and M.Ed building since 2007.
“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 this VC, no significant infrastructure work is done, as the university is without a university engineer.
“It is run on the basis of arbitrary 10% less than the tender value and work orders are allotted without proper tendering process. 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,” it stated.
According to the committee, in the recently held university court, anomalies committed by the VC were pointed out by the members of the court that included MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajyya Sabha, for not presenting the annual reports, annual accounts and budget estimates to the court before submitting these to the Parliament ‘and for this serious violation by the VC’, the court had to be adjourned.
The entire functioning of the university, all sections, examinations and departments has been handicapped and compromised because the VC has not owned up to his responsibilities for omissions and commissions, it stated.
The committee also expressed deep concern at “half-truths in circulation in the name of self-laudatory note by the VC, which demeans the high office of the vice-chancellor.”
“An erring, absent and incompetent vice-chancellor has brought down the hard work of university stakeholders to null, and it needs urgent course correction. The JAC appeals to 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,” read the statement.
