NU starts diploma course in Tukadoji’s name

Nagpur: Fulfilling the demand of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj’s followers, Nagpur University on Wednesday cleared the proposal of starting a new postgraduate diploma course in the saint’s name. It would be conducted from this year itself.
NU has also extended deadline of admission for this course till September 20. The most interesting aspect is there will be 20 seats and all the students would receive a monthly stipend of Rs5,000. Ten of them would be granted accommodation in NU’s Nelson Mandela Hostel.
The decision to start a course in name of the revered saint was taken during a marathon meeting of the Management Council. A variety of topics were discussed in detail by the members led by vice chancellor SP Kane and pro-VC Vinayak Deshpande and many decisions were made.
“It will be a one year course titled ‘Gram Sevavrati Padyuttar Padvika’ where students would study the preaching of great saint and also performed tasks in rural areas as advised by him. Since, the issue was related to starting a new course, I haven’t used my special powers, and let it come through usual procedure of clearance from Board of Studies (BOS), faculty, Academic Council and now Management Council,” the VC said.
The council also cleared a proposal to hike the budget of Maharashtra State Security Corporation (MSSC) which was demanding a monthly pay of Rs3,000 per guard. It will hike the NU’s expenditure by Rs32 lakh. Two members Vishnu Changde and Dinesh Sheram opposed NU’s decision and submitted a note of dissent. Later, the VC constituted a panel under Changde and Sheram for reviving the security of all its premises.
“The new guidelines made it mandatory for educational institutions to deploy security from the MSSC for all its premises. Currently, we’ve taken their services for our hostels, campus and administrative block. Now, we will also deploy its guards for our new administrative block at campus,” Kane said, adding that from next time, the MSSC would be directed to intimate NU in advance for such demands.
Discussions also took place on delay in completion of new building. The VC informed that the contractor was given a new date of handing over the premises to NU before September 20. “The inauguration would be conduced after the assembly elections due to code of conduct, probably in November third week. We would be inviting the new chief minister along with Bajaj Group chairman Rahul Bajaj,” the VC said.
He informed that after being shifted to the new building, they plan to construct a big open dome on the parking space of the existing administrative block for conducting various programmes.
NU also decided to absorb 11 persons on compassionate grounds in non-teaching staff position, despite the opposition from the government. About 44 persons have applied for the posts on same grounds. The VC informed that they had appointed 61 contractual teachers for its departments and conducted colleges out of 117 and remaining would be filled up soon.