Delhi University EC meeting: Not consulted for drafting agenda, claim members

The upcoming meeting of the Delhi University's highest decision making body — Executive Council (EC) — is expected to witness stormy scenes as the council members claimed they were not consulted by the varsity administration before drafting the agenda and hence several "important issues" are being missed.

Among the proposals that will come for approval during the meeting, scheduled on Tuesday, are the construction of new buildings and renovation of the existing ones and creating a new statutory authority, namely Director North Campus. "There are numerous pressing issues in the university that should be also raised during the meeting, including the adhoc teacher absorption issue and the self-financed model of university's journalism school," said Rajesh Jha, an EC member and a professor at Rajdhani College.

Jha, however, said that the EC members will anyway raise these issues during the meeting. "We can't ignore the fact that 60 per cent of the teachers working in the university are adhocs and we are not giving them even a mention in the EC meeting agenda," he added.

The members will also question the rationale behind creating the new post of Director North Campus. "The university could not even fill all the sanctioned posts from long. They even failed to appoint a full-time pro vice-chancellor in the last two years. And, they are proposing to create a new post now," said AK Bhagi, another EC member and an assistant professor at Dyal Singh College. Bhagi has also recently written to the V-C urging him to add the MHRD and UGC issued notification of the revised Pay Scales of teachers and other employees agenda of the meeting.

The pro-VC performs responsibility of the VC, in the absence of the latter. Despite several attempts, VC Yogesh Tyagi's office did not respond for a comment.

Sources in the university also claimed that the long-pending appointments of assistant professors in DU's law faculty will also be announced during the meeting. "The interviews for these appointments were conducted in July last year but the results have not been announced yet, in violation of the UGC guidelines of appointments," an EC member said, who wished to remain anonymous.