Varsity may urge Election Commission to exempt teachers

The Mumbai University on Friday has assured its teaching and non-teaching staff that it will write to the state election commission (EC) to request that they be exempted from election duty.

Members of the senate at its biannual meeting said that the election duty would interfere in the staff's exam and evaluation related work. "Since the elections are around the time of examinations, we will immediately write to the EC to not grant election duty to the university staff," said pro-vice-chancellor Naresh Chandra.

The varsity also announced its budget worth Rs427.11 crore in the senate meeting. The budget allocates Rs5 crore for the 102nd Indian Science Congress to be held at the university in January 2015, Rs10 lakh for introduction of summer school, Rs2 lakh for the tourism and hospitality management course and Rs3 crore for an indoor sports facility.

The budget has also made provisions of Rs10 lakh to set up a Buddhist studies centre. On January 30, 2014, dna had reported how the University Grants Commission had directed the university to return the fund allocated as the centre never took off.