NEHU pro-VC says order on HASA came from Prez

SHILLONG: Henry Lamin, the pro-vice chancellor of North-Eastern Hill University, said on Sunday the directive to discontinue special allowance to teachers came from the President and that there was no forgery by the vice chancellor as alleged by the teachers’ body.
Reacting to the remark by the NEHU Teachers’ Association on Saturday that Lamin’s stand on Hill Arrear Special Allowance (HASA) “is offensive and does not do justice to his primary status as a teachers”, the pro-VC said, “It is a fact that I am a teacher but at the same time my primary duty is to save the university and the State of Meghalaya because without this university I cannot become a teacher.”
The teachers’ body has criticised Lamin’s stand to discontinue the special allowance saying he was against this in the past. But Lamin claimed that while last time (2009-10) the directive was from the Union Grants Commission, this time it came from the President, who is the Visitor of NEHU.
“It is clearly mentioned in the letter dated May 11,” he added.
On NEHUTA’s allegation of forgery against Vice Chancellor S.K Srivastava, Lamin said in a statement, “I have checked and found out no evidence of forgery in any minutes of the Executive Council and the allegation is baseless.”
The teachers had also blamed Lamin for “destabilising the normal functioning of the university”. To this, the pro-VC said NEHUTA barred a few members of the university’s planning committee from attending a pre-scheduled meeting on June 16.