SHILLONG, Nov 26: More than 20 protesters held placards and marched from central library, NEHU, to the ground near administrative block seeking the removal of SK Srivastava as the Vice Chancellor of the University and appointment of a local tribal qualified professor for the post.
Police personnel and a magistrate were also present during the protest which was organised by the Meghalaya Confederation for Academic Welfare.
The convener of the organisation, Roy Kupar Synrem, said, “We demand that Srivastava should not be allowed to continue supervising the search and selection committee, which is responsible for selecting a new VC”.
Stating that NEHU is the pride of Meghalaya, Synrem recalled that in the year 2006, the UGC had conferred the University with the potential for excellence award. He, however, lamented that in 2020, NEHU’s rank dropped to 74 from among 100 universities from across India. “Who is responsible for this failure? Who is responsible for the mess that NEHU is in right now? The VC is supposed to be the leader and lead the university to its success and growth, but we have seen that in the last 4-5 years, he has been unable to keep the stakeholders on the same page. We have witnessed protests time and again whether it was by teachers or students,” he said, while asserting that the incumbent VC is responsible for the “failures”.
Stating that the University has not had a local head, Synrem said, “A home-grown local qualified professor from NEHU should be given a chance to lead the University. The only tribal VC we had was Dr B Pakem and after all these years, we have not been able to produce a local professor to lead NEHU”.
Maintaining that Srivastava should not be granted another term, Synrem pushed for a probe into the financial irregularities, which were present during the term of the incumbent VC.
Elaborating on the irregularities, he said that there have been several construction works in the universities in the last few years. However, albeit construction had started, tenders were not called.