MUMBAI: Members of the management councils of Mumbai University as well as SNDT University have frowned on the higher education minister’s decision to hold a janta darbar to address the grievances of various stakeholders.
Some management council members have written to the governor, the chancellor of state universities, expressing their opposition against the public meeting. Minister Uday Samant is slated to meet and address the grievances of students, parents, teachers and the non-teaching staff on February 22 at Jamboree Maidan, Worli. And the responsibility of setting up the venue, arranging the seating and shouldering other expenses is on the two city varsities.
“It is sad and unfortunate that in spite of repeated requests from the university authorities and strictures from the High Court, the State Government is not stopping from interfering in the day-to-day activities of the university. The management council of Mumbai University is capable of handling its problems and resolving the same with the help of its stakeholders. The State Government has no right to interfere in the day-to-day administration by organizing such meetings at places which are inconvenient to the university administration,” said a letter from management council member Neel Helekar.
SNDT’s governor nominee to the management council, Suwarna Rawal, will also dispatch a letter to the chancellor. “Universities are autonomous bodies and they have grievance panels. We fail to understand the interference of the minister.” She added both universities have campus halls where the redressal meeting can be held. “Patkar Hall of SNDT has a seating capacity of 1,000. Mumbai University too has its own hall. Across the street from Mantralaya, there is Yashwantrao Chavan hall. Why then is the meeting being held in Worli? For years, the state has not given non-salary grants to universities, which are expected to dip into their own funds for the event,” she said.