NEW DELHI: In 12 Delhi University colleges, teachers and non-teaching staff haven’t been paid their salaries for two months now. The funds have apparently been withheld by Delhi government because the colleges haven’t notified their governing bodies, approval for which, they claim, is awaited from the university.
The 12 institutions, fully funded by Delhi government, 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 Mahavidyalaya, Maharaja Agrasen College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Mahirishi Balmiki College of Education and Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Science.
Besides the faculty, salaries and payments to sanitation workers, contractual labourers and other non-teaching staff have also been held up. At DDU College, principal Hem Chand Jain claimed, “It seems we will not be able to pay salaries even from April 1.”
When asked for his response, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia countered that the government-aided colleges had been doing a lot of “illegal work” because “without governing bodies in place the colleges can't function”.
The issue may take time to be thrashed out. Another principal pointed out, “We are yet to get a concrete response from Delhi government on when and how the issue will be resolved.” He, however, revealed they had information that government representatives would meet vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi on March 17 regarding the matter. A DU official confirmed the meeting.
The official also disclosed the possibility of the university’s Executive Council approving the names at its sitting on March 13. EC member Rajesh Jha had this to say: “The VC has not acted as per statuary laws on the governing bodies. Last year, the DU administration did not table the names for the EC’s approval.”
The DU official also accused the AAP government of “flouting norms in selecting some of governing board nominees” and argued that in the pattern of assistance, which is like an MoU between the government and the university, there was no clause saying that government funds wouldn’t be released to an institute that didn’t have a governing board.
Besides the state government, the university administration too is facing flak. Sujit Kumar, commerce teacher at Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, attributed the face-off to “a fight between two political parties”. He said that while Delhi government was wrong in withholding funds, “we believe the DU administration failed in its duties to resolve the problem due to political reasons”.
Kumar backed his view by noting, “If Delhi University had reservation about some of the government nominees, it could have asked for new names. But in some colleges, DU decided to go ahead with truncated governing boards. In some others, it could not even identify university or teacher representatives.”
The 12 institutions, fully funded by Delhi government, 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 Mahavidyalaya, Maharaja Agrasen College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Mahirishi Balmiki College of Education and Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Science.
Besides the faculty, salaries and payments to sanitation workers, contractual labourers and other non-teaching staff have also been held up. At DDU College, principal Hem Chand Jain claimed, “It seems we will not be able to pay salaries even from April 1.”
When asked for his response, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia countered that the government-aided colleges had been doing a lot of “illegal work” because “without governing bodies in place the colleges can't function”.
The issue may take time to be thrashed out. Another principal pointed out, “We are yet to get a concrete response from Delhi government on when and how the issue will be resolved.” He, however, revealed they had information that government representatives would meet vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi on March 17 regarding the matter. A DU official confirmed the meeting.
The official also disclosed the possibility of the university’s Executive Council approving the names at its sitting on March 13. EC member Rajesh Jha had this to say: “The VC has not acted as per statuary laws on the governing bodies. Last year, the DU administration did not table the names for the EC’s approval.”
The DU official also accused the AAP government of “flouting norms in selecting some of governing board nominees” and argued that in the pattern of assistance, which is like an MoU between the government and the university, there was no clause saying that government funds wouldn’t be released to an institute that didn’t have a governing board.
Besides the state government, the university administration too is facing flak. Sujit Kumar, commerce teacher at Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, attributed the face-off to “a fight between two political parties”. He said that while Delhi government was wrong in withholding funds, “we believe the DU administration failed in its duties to resolve the problem due to political reasons”.
Kumar backed his view by noting, “If Delhi University had reservation about some of the government nominees, it could have asked for new names. But in some colleges, DU decided to go ahead with truncated governing boards. In some others, it could not even identify university or teacher representatives.”
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