Serious allegations have been levelled against the recruitment process underway at the Sikkim University; this time, by faculty members dissatisfied with the manner in which the entire process was managed and questioning the intent behind what they see as obvious moves to subvert fair-play. While the university has often been the target of allegations in the past, from students and even the ruling party, the latest development acquires more significance because it comes from the faculty themselves and has been tabled with the Executive Council and is not merely being played out in the media. The news-report on the allegations published in today’s edition details their arguments and there is no need to go over them again. What is important, however, is to recognise the seriousness of the allegations and the fact that it has been tabled with a statutory body of the University. There will be obvious sniggers of the petitioners being sore losers, but it needs to be recognised that the arguments forwarded by the six Assistant Professors cannot be dismissed offhand since they back it with substantial documents and are even risking their future prospects of employment in the networked world of the academia by sticking their necks out. From information available at hand, the Executive Council is the forum available to the aggrieved faculty members for complaints like this. The ball is now in the Executive Council’s court, and now that the issue has been released into the public domain, what it decides and how it explains its decision will be closely followed not only by those in academic circles, but also the media and the people at large. It is also definite that the issue will be taken up by political parties and that the exchanges will become nastier for all concerned sides. One only hopes that in the din which is bound to explode now, the root questions asked about what the desired administrative procedures should be, are convincingly settled. The Office Memorandum of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, GoI, quoted by the petitioning SU faculty members, before it stipulates that Vice Chancellors cannot exercise their emergency powers for “routine matters” like finalising recruitment procedures, explains that the guideline is being issued because of rising complaints that VCs have been invoking emergency powers “as a matter of routine” and that statutory bodies like the Executive Council “increasing asked to endorse action take on their behalf by the Vice Chancellors”. The guideline stipulating matters for which the VCs should not invoke their emergency powers, the Office Memorandum in question explains, was being issued so that this “rather regressive development” is checked and the statutory bodies allowed to play the “critical important role” envisaged for them in the “overall democratic governance of the Universities”. The new Executive Council at Sikkim University has now been drawn into the debate and how it interprets the Office Memorandum in question [which is of June 2001 vintage, the matter, it appears, has been one of concern for a while now] and the concerned statutes of the Sikkim University Act referred to by the protesting faculty members, will also set a precedence for all Central Universities on this issue. This will be interesting and significant, even if complicated and vexed, issue to follow...
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Editorial: SU in the News, Again
Serious allegations have been levelled against the recruitment process underway at the Sikkim University; this time, by faculty members dissatisfied with the manner in which the entire process was managed and questioning the intent behind what they see as obvious moves to subvert fair-play. While the university has often been the target of allegations in the past, from students and even the ruling party, the latest development acquires more significance because it comes from the faculty themselves and has been tabled with the Executive Council and is not merely being played out in the media. The news-report on the allegations published in today’s edition details their arguments and there is no need to go over them again. What is important, however, is to recognise the seriousness of the allegations and the fact that it has been tabled with a statutory body of the University. There will be obvious sniggers of the petitioners being sore losers, but it needs to be recognised that the arguments forwarded by the six Assistant Professors cannot be dismissed offhand since they back it with substantial documents and are even risking their future prospects of employment in the networked world of the academia by sticking their necks out. From information available at hand, the Executive Council is the forum available to the aggrieved faculty members for complaints like this. The ball is now in the Executive Council’s court, and now that the issue has been released into the public domain, what it decides and how it explains its decision will be closely followed not only by those in academic circles, but also the media and the people at large. It is also definite that the issue will be taken up by political parties and that the exchanges will become nastier for all concerned sides. One only hopes that in the din which is bound to explode now, the root questions asked about what the desired administrative procedures should be, are convincingly settled. The Office Memorandum of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, GoI, quoted by the petitioning SU faculty members, before it stipulates that Vice Chancellors cannot exercise their emergency powers for “routine matters” like finalising recruitment procedures, explains that the guideline is being issued because of rising complaints that VCs have been invoking emergency powers “as a matter of routine” and that statutory bodies like the Executive Council “increasing asked to endorse action take on their behalf by the Vice Chancellors”. The guideline stipulating matters for which the VCs should not invoke their emergency powers, the Office Memorandum in question explains, was being issued so that this “rather regressive development” is checked and the statutory bodies allowed to play the “critical important role” envisaged for them in the “overall democratic governance of the Universities”. The new Executive Council at Sikkim University has now been drawn into the debate and how it interprets the Office Memorandum in question [which is of June 2001 vintage, the matter, it appears, has been one of concern for a while now] and the concerned statutes of the Sikkim University Act referred to by the protesting faculty members, will also set a precedence for all Central Universities on this issue. This will be interesting and significant, even if complicated and vexed, issue to follow...
16 comments:
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Instead of spending time reading statutes and rules and various other , if only the six had spent time brushing up on their knowledge of their specific subject then may be they would have been able to impress the subject expert- there must have been one- and all this wud have been avoided!!! as for nepotism, its a well known fact that posts esp in the admin are for ppl not necessarily from Sikkim!! Make a head count there at chha mile and u'll see how many are truly sikkimese!!!
ReplyDeletewhy does it always have to be about Sikkimese?
ReplyDeleteIt is a Central University, it can provide jobs to anyone who is Indian.
But it appears, their rights, do not matter, cause they are not Sikkimese?
And to imagine that the six, did not have knowledge of the subject and that they did not impress their subject expert, is missing the woods for the trees.
It has to be!! why not?? Every state panders to its ppl first doesn't it????The issue, when there is so less opportunity for the Sikkimese , one would expect that one such institution that comes up, will first have the sons of the soil in mind while recruiting for areas that the local can be absorbed into. If in Sikkim ,it has to be for the Sikkimese, only Sikkim cannot be so altruistic and think of giving opportunities to the whole of India. The levels/areas that outsiders have been absorbed in is worth thinking about, animators, designers and all the likes, doesnt Sikkim have ppl in this field and of caliber. as a central institution it can provide for any indian, but lets first pay attention to the ones within the state, that's what happens every where else! Go sit in their class as an observer, then u'll find that neither the woods nor the tress are being missing, instead it'll be hitting the nail on the head!!!
ReplyDeleteOnly one of the six petitioners, it appears, is Sikkimese
ReplyDeletevery interesting!
DeleteIs there a Sikkimese therein....I wonder???? I know of just one Sikkimese in the microbiology dept, who's been there since they started !!
Deleteno wonders the petition...if it was just Sikkimese, it wud'nt have occured to them to raise their voice...so used to being subjugated as we are...first by the monarchs, then the democratic monarchs!!!!
When people think why bring down the arguments to Sikkimese then for them to know that the University was built primarily for people of Sikkim, lots of debate is going on, so you can also add your valuable comments on the sites given below:-
ReplyDeletehttp://sikkimnow.blogspot.in/2012/03/vc-refutes-allegations-of.html#!http://sikkimnow.blogspot.com/2012/03/vc-refutes-allegations-of.html
http://voiceofsikkim.com/2012/02/28/allegation-surfaces-su-vc-prof-mp-lama-misusing-power/
i didnt find any thing relevant and the postings on Voice of Sikkim is full of grammatical errors,i feel scared what will happen to impressionable minds who will read its reports!!
DeleteVISIT THE SITE FOR MORE TALKS ON VC:
ReplyDeletehttp://isikkim.com/2011-12-prof-lama-not-to-continue-with-sikkim-university-29-01/
On now on this eternal debate of SU VC, sikkimese non sikkimese, some body sure is trying to gain more hits on their site. and why will Lama ji continue beyond his term...he has gained enough from it and with such a hostile environment ....some created by him, some by others, he will surely scoot!!!
DeleteMaybe you are rite but these are different sites & i read it , very interesting to know and above all I find is how the VC has played with the state.
DeleteThe most pathetic part is the University itself being a no man's land now, the damage is already done by VC. It is said "If creating anything is hard then maintenance of the creation is the toughest" but here the whole base of the construction seems shattered !!!!! A very sad time for Sikkim's future in the field of education but we will pray that everything will be healed with the passage of time.
ReplyDeleteIt shuld be more like a university with no land....every where the min the creation of a Univ is made by the Centre, then land is immediatly transfered, but just the opposite haoppend here in Sikkim...received with open arms coz the appointed VC was great pals with CM.....they fell out and the transfer of land also suffered. the only concern is whether the next incumbent will have the same interest and be able to carry forward the hotch potch that is SU...from buildings flung every where, hostels in every direction, MA progs that have been randomly opened, attrition rates going up by the day, low student interest in SU!!
ReplyDeleteThe land would have been no problem only if the VC would not go to the land owner personally with security guards and threaten them to leave the land...
Deletenow where did u get that info from!!! one should not always believe what one reads in the papers and the teleivision news!! especially those coming out of Sikkim. One paper reported that JP Tamang is the first registrar of SU....which if any one has been following SU will know is incorrect....he is completing the term of the first incumbent who left mid way some fellow called Sarkar if i remember correctly!! and the above exercise was a futile exercise coz it got SU nothing but bad coverage whn infact it was a PR exercize.
Delete^^^^ I heard MP Lama made the first Registrar leave and that he had no intention of leaving.
Delete