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In a recent development, the University of Delhi (DU) Executive Council has approved the Delhi government’s list of nominees for the college Governing Bodies (GB) of 28 colleges.

The approval of Delhi government’s list by the Executive Council (EC) was made official by a statement issued by Professor Tarun Kumar Das, Registrar of DU, after the Executive Council held its meeting on the 7th and 8th of March.

Significantly, on July 2017, the Delhi government had ordered a freeze on grants for DU Colleges that are either fully or partially funded by it. The reason given for this was the perceptible failure of the varsity to appoint governing bodies in the given time.

The meeting witnessed comprehensive discussion on names sent by the government. Following this, the EC approved the government’s list of nominees for the college governing bodies, with a few exceptions. According to an EC member, 280 names for the GB were approved, which includes 140 names sent by the government. However, four names from the government list were withheld.

Further, with regard to some of the nominees, the EC has requested the Delhi government to present details such as educational qualification. The composition of governing bodies must include 15 members and one non-teaching staff member. Out of the total, five are to be nominated by the Delhi Government and five nominees come under the mandate of the University.

Responding to queries from DU Beat, Rajib Ray, President of Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA), remarked on this development, “For this, the varsity is to be blamed. The decision to constitute governing bodies should have been taken over a year back. The only reason why the Delhi government can be blamed is that they have threatened to block the funds.”

Surendra Kumar, Executive Member of DUTA, who is currently holding an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Faculty of Arts against the newly proposed University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, made a critical observation and said, “Even during the previous governments, whether it was the BJP or Congress, there have been differences of opinion between the Chief Minister and the Vice Chancellor. But I cannot recall a single incident wherein fund-cuts were advised by the government.”

During a conversation with DU Beat, he further discerned on the administrative lapse involving this issue by stating, “The crisis of governing bodies is an administrative crisis between the Delhi government and the varsity. Why should a teacher of DU suffer because of this?”

On this development’s impact on the DUTA’s ongoing struggle for fairer salary terms for professors, Rajib Ray commented optimistically, “With this, I hope the crisis of blocked grants would end, thereby providing some respite to the striking teachers.”

 

Feature Image Credits:  Deposit Photos

Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak

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A delegation from DUTA (Delhi University Teachers’ Association), including the DUTA President Rajib Ray, met the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, to plead to the state government to roll back its order of freezing funds of the 28 University of Delhi colleges it funds. The teachers collectively requested the government because the colleges are finding it difficult to fund salaries for teaching and non-teaching staff in those colleges.

In a written appeal to the Delhi Government, they wrote, “We support your insistence that governing bodies must be fully constituted at the earliest. However, we have now learnt that the colleges are finding it difficult to release salaries to teaching and non-teaching staff. Any delay in the release of salaries will cause a crisis in the personal lives of the employees and their families.”
On 31st July, Manish Sisodia, the Delhi Minister of Education directed a freeze of grants for the 28 colleges it fully or partially funds. In a tweet, he claimed that it was a “deliberate and mala fide attempt to delay the formation of governing bodies by DU”. On 14th August, the list of governing bodies was finally sent by DU but was rejected by the government on procedural grounds. The stand-off has been since October last year when Delhi University was required to send a list of its governing bodies of all the colleges.

Image Credits: Indian Express

Vijeata Balani

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On 31st July, Manish Sisodia directed the Finance Department to stop the funds to 28 colleges of University of Delhi, over what he termed was “mala fide to delay the formation of governing bodies” which had been pending since October 2016. The purpose of these governing bodies was to facilitate and keep the check on the funds provided to Delhi University by the government of Delhi and to ensure accountability.  There are twelve fully-funded colleges, while sixteen others recieve 5% funding from the government. This landmark decision could directly affect colleges like Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Maharaja Agrasen College, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and nine others as they recieve direct funding from the government. Whereas colleges like Kamala Nehru College, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Shivaji College, Gargi College and fourteen others come under the partially-funded category.

In a last minute save, Delhi university (DU) sent a list of names for the governing bodies. However, that list was rejected by the Delhi government on 14th August on procedural grounds. A government official told Hindustan Times “DU has sent a list of five members for appointment of as governing council members.” Whereas the university had to send numerous names from which the government of Delhi chooses five, as the government warrants the members of the council, not Delhi University.

The contention between the government and university seems to persist because the state government has now nominated five members, that according to sources, includes names of those from diverse feilds to uphold balance in representation. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led government has asked DU to “duly constitute” the governing bodies which will include the five members included in the list sent to DU by the government before appointing any teachers or making severe administrative changes.

Image Credits: DUB Archives

Bhavya Banerjee

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