DUTA PRESS RELEASE: 10.11.2014

DUTA and DUCKU joined the teachers and students of Swami Shraddhanand College under the banner of the College Staff Association for a vigorous protest against the principal Dr. S. K. Kundra’s arrogant refusal to release the pending salaries of 6 teachers who have been employed on Adhoc basis in the college since July 2014. While these teachers have been engaging their classes regularly, as per time-table, and in accordance with the workload, the principal who had employed them in the first place has now refused to recognize them as faculty.

The College Staff Association has been holding a continuous Dharna at the college gate against this injustice since 27 September. Hundreds of students have also joined the Staff Association during this time and have demanded the resignation of the principal on the basis of this injustice and several other atrocities perpetrated by him.

Salaries of teachers in various colleges have been unethically delayed or withheld as the salaries for positions sanctioned under the OBC Expansion scheme have been diverted for the purchase of the FYUP laptops. The DUTA holds the VC and the University administration squarely responsible for this mess. EC member Dr. Abha Dev Habib has assured that this matter will be taken up with the Executive Council on an urgent basis.

The DUTA is aware of many charges of financial bungling and nepotism against the principal. Despite this, he is being shielded by the University administration and the Vice Chancellor. Like other tainted loyalists of the current administration, Dr. Kundra seems to have gone out of his way to earn his brownie-points with the discredited VC. His role as Task Force member of the erstwhile FYUP had given him immunity which was used to flout all rules and oppress the staff and students of the college. Delhi University is plagued by the misfortune of having to suffer administrators like him who are intent on crippling the teaching-learning environment. The DUTA warns the University administration to stop shielding him and other corrupt principals, as it is determined to deliver a body-blow to this unholy nexus through sustained agitation in the coming months.

While the DUTA will join the College Staff Association in its next protest against principal Kundra due at his residence, it will also draw public attention to the sordid plight of the University in its forthcoming Whistleblowers’ March (Wednesday, 12 November). The Whistleblowers’ March will target all the tainted people occupying administrative positions in the University and its colleges, including the VC himself. While the UGC Satyam Committee Report has nailed his guilt in diverting over 100 Crore rupees from the OBC Expansion Grant to buy useless laptops for the FYUP, the Government is yet to initiate appropriate action against him, in this regard. The DUTA reiterates its demand for his removal.