Ramjas College faculty to launch dharna against principal

Delhi University's Ramjas College is once again in the eye of the storm with its faculty members announcing to launch an indefinite dharna from Thursday demanding principal PC Tulsian's resignation for allegedly being involved in corruption.

The decision was taken during an emergency meeting of the Ramjas' Staff Association held on Wednesday. "The association constituted a five-member committee to investigate into the allegations of corruption against Tulsian. And, he has been found guilty of being involved in several malpractices on campus," said Surender Singh, President, Ramjas Staff Association.

As per the findings of the committee, Tulsian used the fund collected from students, generally used on activities related to them, for paying salaries to his personal staff. "It was found that two staff members, namely Ram Nath and Amit Kumar, are ghost faculty members. One of them works as the personal driver of Tulsian and they have been drawing Rs 15,800 and Rs 11,000 per month as salary from the students' fund," Singh said.

The committee also revealed that Tulsian, who took charge as the principal in March 2017, "unnecessarily" continued to engage several staff members with his office. They, however, have no work to perform. "These staff members also draw salaries from students' fund," he added.

When DNA contacted Tulsian for a comment, he denied all the charges. "I am not aware of these allegations," he said. However, the association claimed to have sent a letter to him on Monday.

The association will write to the DU Vice-Chancellor on Thursday urging him to start a legal action against Tulsian.

According to the minutes of Wednesday's meeting, a copy of which is with DNA, Tulsian consistently ignored the demand of auditing the students' fund by the CAG for 2013-17. "During this period around Rs 15 crores were spent from the students' fund in building projects and about Rs 3 crore was spent on college's centenary celebrations," the minutes read.

The association also alleged that Tulsian "illegally" engaged a retired Zoology teacher as an advisor of an ongoing construction project at the campus. "The person has no qualification or experience for being an advisor and still he has been paid more than 20 lakhs as salary from students fund as of now," Singh said.

COMMITTEE’S FINDINGS

• A five-member committee investigated allegations of corruption against Tulsian, the staff association chief said. 
   
• It found that Tulsian used funds collected from students to pay salaries to his personal staff.