Press Release, 2 June 2014
Vice-Chancellor’s meeting with the DUTA Office Bearers
The DUTA welcomes the initiative taken by the DU Administration to invite the office-bearers of the DUTA to an interaction with the Vice-Chancellor today at 12.30 p.m. At the meeting, which lasted for nearly an hour, the DUTA representatives took up a host of issues that have remained unresolved for the past three years as a result of a lack of dialogue with the University administration. Along with the issue of FYUP, the representatives also took up the issue of permanent appointments and the extreme difficulties faced by the ad-hoc teachers as a result of the three-years long stalling of appointments, the arbitrary and unacademic screening criteria, the issue pertaining to the faulty implementation of the Reservation Roster and the refusal to follow the DoPT guidelines regarding this, the issue relating to the School of Open Learning, cases of the victimization of teachers in several colleges including suspensions, salary cuts, denial of promotion, the abrogation of Ordinance XV-D, the speedy resolution to the CPF-GPF issue following the High Court judgment and cases of stepping-up, the erosion in the functioning of statutory bodies and their by-passing in decision making, and the several curtailments of democratic expression of dissent or criticism, including the arbitrary imposition of a draconian Code of Conduct on teachers.
In the same vein, the DUTA representatives also urged the Vice Chancellor to immediately withdraw the show-cause notice served to the SOL Staff Association President, Dr. N. K. Aggarwal after last week’s Protest Dharna which was organized to demand continuation of regular degree programmes at the SOL and the immediate start to admissions.
However, it was unfortunate that the Vice-Chancellor did not respond to any of the issues raised in the meeting as he had to rush to another meeting. The Vice-Chancellor, on his part, raised the issue of teacher absenteeism requesting the DUTA’s cooperation in curbing it. The DUTA office bearers responded to this appeal by making it clear that it did not support or encourage absenteeism of any kind. They pointed out the existing statutory mechanisms that have been put in place on the demand of the DUTA, including Student-Faculty Committees in every subject which could take up issues related to academic matters and ensure smooth functioning of the teaching-learning processes. These mechanisms were adopted by the Academic Council on the basis of a detailed documents prepared by the DUTA entitled Academic Reforms and Curbing of Absenteeism and Academic Reforms and Accountability.
It is significant that the meeting with the DUTA today has taken place after the DUTA representatives had met the HRD Minister Smt. Smriti Irani on Friday, 30 May. The HRD Minister had expressed her concern that the DU VC has not engaged in any dialogue with the elected representatives of teachers and students. She had assured the DUTA representatives that space for dialogue would be opened up. The DUTA hopes that the University Administration will continue this process of meetings, without which no meaningful resolution of the several issues, mentioned above, may be hoped for.
Nandita Narain, President
Harish Khanna, Secretary
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Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA)
Day Centre Building, Chhatra Marg
University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Tel: 27667822, 27666351, 27667725/1697
Website: https://duta.live
https://duta.live
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