By Our Reporter
Shillong, Nov 8: The Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising NEHUTA, NEHUNSA and NEHUSU, has not ruled out approaching the High Court of Meghalaya to seek redressal of its grievance pertaining to the alleged illegal appointment of Rohit Prasad as technical officer in the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU).
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, JAC chairman Lakhon Kma said they might move the court as Vice Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla had not followed due procedures and statutory provisions of NEHU and violated the UGC Model CRR (Cadre Recruitment Rules) while appointing Prasad.
“We are going to sit tomorrow to decide on our next course of action. We will have a discussion with an open mind to explore all available options. We will examine even approaching the court to take this issue to its logical end,” the JAC chairman said.
He mentioned that the JAC had adopted a resolution declaring that Prof Shukla’s salary will be used to cover the salaries paid to Prasad. Prasad was paid salaries in the last ten months.
“We will have to think how we can enforce this. Maybe, it can be done through a ruling from the court,” Kma said.
He said the VC is trying to shield his flaws by providing half-baked information pertaining to a clause of the UGC Model CRR, thereby misleading the stakeholders of the university and the public at large.
The JAC chairman said they have decided to write to President Droupadi Murmu who is also the Visitor of the university and Governor Phagu Chauhan who is also the Chief Rector of the university against the “gross violation” of UGC Model CRR by the VC. Kma said in the last press conference, the VC had quoted clause 6 b of the UGC Model CRR to claim that Prasad’s appointment was genuine as it was approved by the Executive Council of NEHU.
“The quotation made by the VC is half-baked as the UGC Model CRR clearly stated that appointment should be done only by the Selection Committee after advertisement for the same has been published in the newspaper,” Kma said.
Stating that even the President of India has to follow procedures, he asked if the VC is above the President.
“We condemn this act and statement of the VC where he claimed that he has followed the rules,” he said.
The JAC chairman slammed the VC for claiming that Prasad contributed in the successful implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“We would like to clarify that the contribution of Prasad in the implementation of NEP is zero. It was due to the contribution of the teachers and everyone in the university that NEP was successfully implemented at the PG-level. We will slowly unravel the reason as to why the VC appointed Prasad by not following the necessary procedures,” Kma added.