‘Come for talks, verify status
of points raised and steps
taken by the university’
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 10: The North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) administration on Friday appealed to the protesting groups to discuss and verify the status of the points raised and the steps taken by the university rather than agitating at a time when the academic activities are at a peak.
“The university appeals to all concerned to come across the table, discuss and verify the status of the points raised and the steps taken by the university rather than going out and protesting without updating on the same as the protesting groups are also part of the university and are aware of the progress and steps taken by the university on the charter of demands,” NEHU Vice Chancellor Prabha Shankar Shukla said.
“This will help the university function normally and deliver our tasks for the academic and overall benefit of our students in general having amicably sorted out the issues concerning the implementation of NEP 2020,” he said.
“Any disruptions at this time of the academic year will disturb not only the timely completion of syllabus but also the smooth conduct of examinations which concerns the students for which the university is primarily established for,” he added.
Stating that he has clarified the position on the appointment of Rohit Prasad at a press conference last week, Shukla said, “As far as the appointment of statutory officers and the university engineer is concerned, the interviews for the posts were slated for November 20 and 22 and the preparation for the same is ongoing.”
On the other demands of the JAC, he said, “Concerning the university health centre, the committee has taken appropriate steps and the required purchases have been started from the portal as per the mandate of the government of India, the approval for which was granted in November.”
“For the purchases and procurements in different academic departments and sections of the university, the GeM portal has been adopted and three trainings-cum-exposure sessions have already been conducted to sensitise the staff for the purpose. The university has listed and registered more than 50 secondary users and more are in the process with a statutory officer of the university registered as a primary user of the GeM portal,” he added.
Regarding the demand for relieving the teaching and technical staff from ministerial duties, Shukla said: “The teaching staff performing additional duty is for smooth transaction of routine work of the university so that the university’s functioning does not get delayed.
The teachers will be automatically relieved once the posts are filled up for which the requisite advertisement and recruitment process is ongoing.”
“Also, the teaching faculty with their consent only are requested to undertake additional responsibilities and the university is grateful to them for their cooperation in helping with the administrative work,” he said.
“As far as additional responsibility in the administration being given to the non-teaching staff is concerned, they have been executing their responsibilities even before my joining,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor asked the protestors not to “make issues out of non-issues” by raking up the statutes and Acts that are available on the university’s webpage. “Verify the facts before declaring them as a protest agenda,” he said.
The NEHU administration stated that the university convocation is a routine work for which the consent and schedule of the chief guest and chancellor are important and the required correspondences have been made from the beginning of the year to get the dates yet to be confirmed by the ministry. Furthermore, the marking system in the university examinations is a policy decision adopted according to the NEP 2020 regulations and any amendment required has to be placed in the Academic Council.
The vice-chancellor also clarified the demands, stating: “The university teachers are the main stakeholders of the Academic Council where the discussion on issues related to the marking system, the inclusion of elected members among the students as representatives in the Academic Council, admission process along with weightage given in admission are discussed and policy decisions are taken as deemed fit and beneficial for all concerned.”
He further said: “The university is now at the peak of academic activities with syllabus coverage and examinations scheduled during the first part of December and disruptions in the form of indefinite strikes and protest without verifying the facts will hamper these activities, thus affecting the academic atmosphere of the university.”