SHILLONG, June 15: The NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) has called on Shillong Campus Pro Vice Chancellor, Sumarbin Umdor, to resolve all pending demands in a timely manner.
The newly-elected body of the NEHUTA Executive Committee (EC) recently met with the Pro-VC to discuss university affairs in the current scenario.
NEHUTA president, Lakhon Kma, stated that after thorough discussion, they had submitted a list of 18 pending demands which could not be resolved by Vice Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla, leading to the protests against him.
Kma requested that a regular Dean be appointed by following the principle of rotation according to seniority, as has been practiced in NEHU for decades in line with the Right to Equality as enshrined under Article 14-16 of the Constitution. He suggested for amendment of the Statute 6, Clause (1), which would allow every Dean of a School of studies to be appointed by the Vice Chancellor from among the professors in the school for a period of three years and be eligible for re-appointment provided the list of professors in order of seniority has been exhausted in the school.
The NEHUTA also raised the issue of the need to conduct the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for promotion from various stages, which has been inordinately delayed for several years, resulting in frustration among the teachers.
The NEHUTA demanded that the CAS for all stages should be conducted immediately, and the entire process should be completed by July 9.
The NEHUTA also demanded the recruitment of regular non-teaching staff and regular teaching positions to reduce NEHU’s financial burden on contractual/outsourcing services. The association expects that the advertisement should be out by June 25 and the entire process should be completed within three months.
The NEHUTA president asked the Pro-VC to withhold the salaries of Registrar, Omkar Singh and Deputy Registrar Amit Gupta, who have been on unauthorised leave for more than six months and have exhausted all leave due to them in the university.
Kma requested that their salaries be withheld with immediate effect under CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 and initiate disciplinary action under CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965.
On the reconstitution of the Building Committee, Kma noted that the current committee has the Vice-Chancellor as the chairperson, raising concerns about transparency. He demanded that the Building Committee be reconstituted within one week with a senior professor as the chairperson, as the convention used to be when NEHU was at its glorious times in not-so-distant past.
Regarding the appointment of Director of ICSSR, the NEHUTA president said that the term of the current Honorary Director of the North Eastern Regional Centre of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR-NERC) has already been completed, and that a professor’s name be recommended for the post of the Honorary Director so that he/she can be appointed immediately.
The NEHUTA also stated that there has been only a single convocation of the university in the last four years, and that a regular convocation should be held as soon as possible.
Kma also demanded that a claim of Rs 1 crore for the new gate no. 1 should be made to the Ministry of Education as promised by the central team which visited NEHU last month.
