By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 12: The North-Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) has threatened that it will demand the resignation of Vice Chancellor, Prabha Shankar Shukla if he fails to convene an emergency meeting of the Academic Council (AC) to discuss the stalemate surrounding the implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) at the earliest.
“We will not set any more deadlines for the VC to act. We will decide on our next course of agitation within a week or ten days,” NEHUTA president, Lakhon Kma said, addressing a protest rally held at the university here on Thursday.
He said they had to make this decision as the VC has not responded to the democratic process which they followed by asking him to rectify his decision on implementing NEP without approval from the AC.
He said the NEHUTA will decide on the next move together with Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) and North-Eastern Hill University Non-teaching Staff Association.
According to Kma, they will not hesitate to demand the VC’s resignation if the latter continues to remain adamant. He stressed that the VC will need to make the rectification since one cannot decide on academic matters by sitting in one’s office.
“The NEP is an academic policy. The AC is supreme to decide on NEP. The rules are very clear that the VC has no other option but to convene a special or emergency meeting of the AC if one-third of the members wants it. We had 100 signatures favouring the emergency meeting of the AC,” he said.
Kma said the VC cannot run the university as his enterprise and function like its CEO.
“We do not want to have a VC who is arrogant, insensitive and illogical. We hope some good sense prevails and the VC will realise the need to rectify his decision which will be in the best interest of the students and the university,” he said.
The NEHUTA president further stated that the VC cannot undermine the statutory authority of the university and the AC is supreme when it comes to academic matters.
“The AC decided that NEP should be implemented from 2024-2025. But this decision was never reflected in the minutes. In fact, only five members of the AC had raised their hand to support the move to implement NEP from the current session,” Kma said.
He alleged that the members of AC were backstabbed as the VC had announced before the media that the university decided to implement NEP from the current session.
Kma alleged that the VC is playing with the future of the students by allowing this issue to drag on. He said they had communicated to the VC that their focus is not on rolling back NEP, but fixing the procedural errors in order to proceed for the benefit of the undergraduate students.
The NEHUTA president said the VC has the power to convene a meeting at any point of time.
“The VC is testing our patience. But I want to make it very clear that we will not hesitate to barge into the VC’s chamber if we feel there is a need to correct his wrongdoings,” Kma warned.
Furthermore, NEHUTA has compiled a document denouncing the VC as the worst the university has faced in decades.
“He is ready to break Acts, Statutes, Ordinances, and Regulations so openly to suit his ego. He is illogical, arrogant, and insensitive,” the dossier said.
In addition to trying to defend their own legal rights as AC members, which the VC has attempted to violate, NEHUTA declared that they are fighting against all of his wrongdoings.
It went on to say that if they permit this, it will create a risky precedent that will give the VC licence to flout all legal requirements on a variety of issues pertaining to the welfare of the university’s fraternity.
NEHUTA claimed in the dossier that the VC has failed to uphold the democratic norms and sanctity of the statutory body like the Academic Council.