Manish Sisodia Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

DUTA wrote to the Deputy Chief Minister highlighting the inadequacy of the previous grant to cover employees’ salaries and pensions.

On 3rd April 2020, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) wrote to Shri Manish Sisodia, Minister of Education and Deputy Chief Minister, New Delhi regarding the inadequacy of the grant released by the government to 12 Delhi University colleges funded by the Delhi Government. The funds released on 30th March were said to be insufficient and many colleges were unable to pay the salaries and pensions of both teaching and non-teaching employees.

The Association had written to the Government on 26th March, requesting them to enquire into the insufficiency of funds after many colleges had alleged that the grant would only cover the salaries and other expenses for two months which had been due since January.

Hem Chand Jain, acting principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, told NewsClick, “Given the dues in form of arrears, property tax, salaries of teachers and non-teaching staff, we had expected an approximate grant of Rs 12-13 crore. But, with this amount we would be able to pay the salaries for January and February only. The salary of March which would be paid on April 1 cannot be covered in this amount. Additionally, we need to pay Rs 1.90 crore as Property Tax. Whether our electricity and water connections will continue or not in absence of payment, we do not know.”

He added, “Traditionally, we used to get grants in March for the salaries till June. How will we pay salaries till May or June? I hope the Delhi Government releases the required grant soon.” The sanction order, however, had awarded Rs 4.2 crore for salaries and Rs 40 lakh for other expenses to the college.

The reason for this crisis is said to be the tussle between the Delhi Government and the Delhi University administration regarding the appointment of governing bodies of the twelve colleges that are funded by the Delhi Government. The DU administration had rejected the names of the people that the Aam Aadmi Party Government in Delhi had suggested since they did not qualify the criteria that are in place to appoint members to the governing bodies. AAP, however, accuses the administration of creating roadblocks at the behest of the BJP Government in the Centre.

Delhi Government funds 28 colleges in all – 12 fully and 16 colleges partially. The 12 colleges are Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education & Sports Science, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Shaheed Raj Guru College , Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Bhagini Nivedita College, Keshav Maha Vidyalaya, Maharaja Agrasen College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Mahirishi Balmiki College of Education and Bhaskara Charya College of Applied Science.

Sixteen colleges that are partially-funded by the Delhi Government are Shivaji College, Motilal Nehru College, Laxmi Bai College, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Maiteryi College, SPM College for Women, Satyawati College, Vivekanand College, Rajdhani College, Kamla Nehru College, Gargi College, Swami Shardhanand College, Kalindi College, Bharti College, Sri Aurbindo College and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce.

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Khush Vardhan Dembla

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NSIT’s Dean of Undergraduate Studies Accused of “Illegally” Reducing Students’ Marks

By Meher Gill September 21, 2018

A lecturer at Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) has alleged the Dean of Undergraduate Studies of using “illegal” means to reduce the marks of some of the students in the subject of Environmental Science.

Surendra Kumar Yadav, a lecturer of Environmental Science (FE-006) at NSIT, recently wrote a letter to Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, and Manish Sisodia, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, regarding issues with the marks of students in the subject.

The letter, dated 4th September 2018, stated that he had awarded decent marks to all his students, however, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies of the college, Dr Sujata Sengar, reduced the marks of some students through unfair means due to her “biases” against the students.

The course is set up for students in their second and fourth semester of BE Undergraduate Programme. At the end of the semesters, after the lecturer’s signature, the final mark sheet needs to be signed by the dean. However, Yadav alleges that she refused to sign it, and the papers evaluated and checked by him were sent for rechecking intentionally, so that the final score of some students could be reduced.

He further says that the Director of the college was also involved in the same, as he is like a “puppet in her hands.” Yadav obtained the two different mark sheets by filing an RTI after some of his students told him that they had not scored well despite their hard work. The two different mark sheets were attached with the letter to the authorities.

The letter further requested the authorities to take an action against the dean or she would “spoil the career of many such students due to her biases”. Yadav proposed the formation of an inquiry committee consisting of people not associated with NSIT, under the chairmanship of a retired judge, to look into the matter. Though the authorities have not replied to the letter yet, Yadav hopefully told DU Beat that “they must be doing something”.

He has been barred from teaching for the current semester, and says it is due to the dean’s “anarchy”.

DU Beat tried contacting Yadav for the names and the contact details of the students who have suffered in the situation, but to no avail.

A student in the third year of Electronics and Communication Engineering, on the condition of anonymity, told DU Beat about the general discord and negativity in the institution with respect to the Dean.

When DU Beat contacted Sengar, she said “I certainly refuse the allegations. However, I am not in a position to comment on this, as of now.”

Khyati Sanger

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Nikhil Kumar

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DUTA Delegation Meets With Manish Sisodia to Request Continuation of Funds

By DU Beat October 19, 2017

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.

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Vijeata Balani

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