The DUTA expresses shock and dismay over the DU VC’s reported attempts to clear his name from all the serious charges that have been proved against him in the Government-instituted Enquiry. His nonchalant refusal, as reported in the news media, to accept guilt in matters related to the unauthorised restructuring of undergraduate courses through FYUP, the diversion of crores of rupees from the ear-marked OBC Expansion Grant for purchase of the now-redundant FYUP laptops, and the unapproved B. Tech. courses introduced alongside the FYUP, shows that he has scant regard for the rule of law and norms of governance in public institutions.
By trivialising the 172 crores funds diversion from a grant that was meant to ensure the continuity in quality and standards of education in DU, post the OBC Reservations, the VC has implicitly suggested that student-teacher ratio, physical infrastructure and the State’s affirmative policy of social justice are meaningless in the context of education. The money that was meant for the purposes of quality expansion was misutilised to popularise the Ill-conceived FYUP through laptops which are now rotting and occupying space in the colleges. If the VC has claimed that the diverted money was put back into the Grant, the DUTA wants to know from where this money has come? Can the VC show any sanction taken from statutory bodies prior to spending such a huge amount? We wish to know why the second tranche of teaching posts under the OBC-Expansion scheme has not yet been released? Why are DU colleges and departments not able to ensure adequate faculty for their students? Why are laboratories overburdened by several simultaneous batches of students? Why are SOL students being neglected? This abject failure to implement the Government’s OBC-Expansion Scheme has undermined Quality, Access and Equity in the Education that DU offers and points to the overall misgovernance and lack of transparency in the VC’s functioning.
The DU VC has also put the careers and lives of thousands of B. Tech. students in danger by running sub-standard B. Tech. courses that the AICTE has not given approval to. The minimum required infrastructure, syllabus and qualified faculty are missing in these courses that have merely been renamed from the erstwhile B.Sc. to B. Tech. Even the due process laid down for starting new courses in colleges were not followed! And today tge onus of getting AICTE approval for these courses has been shifted to colleges. Students enrolled in these courses are looking at an uncertain future as they have been put at a disadvantage in comparison to those students who have been pursuing standard, AICTE-approved B. Tech. Programmes in other institutions. The DU VC has no answers for them.
He is squarely responsible for jeopardising careers of thousands of students by denying Special Chance and revaluation. the grievance redressal mechanism in the University has been completely dismantled and students, teachers and karamcharis are pushed to seek justice from courts. We want to know how much public money the University has spent during his tenure on such litigations?
It is also a matter of shame that the DU VC has continued to ignore the 2006 UGC Guidelines on reservations till date. Further, his refusal to implement the 200-Point reservation Roster in a correct and transparent way has robbed thousands of teachers from reserved categories of the opportunity to benefit from their historic entitlement of reservations. If the current roster modalities are not rectified, DU will only be able to fully implement the Government’s Reservation quota by 2050. Ignoring this shameful outcome, the DU VC has claimed, in an affidavit submitted to the Delhi High Court, that DU is a “State” unto itself and is hence, not obliged to obey the Government’s rules (as per DoPT O.M.s).
Prof Singh has not only discredited DU by repeatedly violating its statutes, ordinances and the emergency powers vested with him, but has also undermined the parliament’s and government’s efforts to ensure continuing accountability, equity and excellence in public-funded educational institutions.
The DUTA’s three-day Jansunwai has thrown up ample evidence, in addition to all that has been documented in its White Paper, of the scale of rights’ violations and human tragedy inflicted by the VC on the students, teachers and karamcharis of this premier University.
The DUTA strongly appeals to the Government and Visitor for justice through the immediate removal of Prof. Dinesh Singh from the office of the Vice-Chancellor.
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