SU picketed again

PROTESTORS AGITATED BY ISSUE OF APPOINTMENT LETTERS, UNIV PULLS BACK AND KEEPS ACCEPTANCE OF OFFERS IN ABEYANCE
GANGTOK, 29 March: There is an obvious communication gap between the Sikkim University management, the state authorities and the protest groups agitating against the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mahendra P. Lama. Of course, the protestors remain convinced that at the root of the continuing confrontation is the VC’s “refusal” to take them “seriously” and frequently resorting to “sly tactics” to bypass the protest and renege even on commitments made by University officials to the people.
Today’s confrontation erupted after the University started issuing appointment letters against interviews held on 16 March for teaching and non-teaching vacancies at the University. The groups protesting the recruitment process at the University had begun their protest with simultaneous gheraos of an interview [for non-executive vacancies] venue and management block on 23 March. The interviews were cancelled that day. However, the University went ahead with interviews called for the next day for system analysts and when even this was protested and picketed, the Registrar issued a notice announcing that all remaining interviews stand postponed.
The protestors since then have approached the HRD Department here and written to Ministries in Delhi demanding that the entire recruitment process be cancelled, an investigation ordered and the recruitment process started afresh in a more transparent manner. It was informed today that the six groups including the Sikkim Sachet Swarojgar and Berojgar Sangathan and Sikkim University Development Committee [comprising of affected landowners from Yangang where the campus is to come up], have even filed a PIL in the High Court here challenging the manner in which the VC directed the entire recruitment process. These developments and past assurances had led them to believe that no new surprises would be pulled on them.
This afternoon, however, word spread that the University was issuing appointment letters on the sly. With clear information difficult to come by, the protestors returned to picket the SU Management block at around 5 p.m. this evening. Soon, there was aggressive sloganeering at the spot and as their numbers grew, so did the tension. Traffic along NH 31A at the spot was also held up and cleared only after the confrontation was resolved for the day at around 8 p.m. The protestors stayed at the spot through the heavy rain and hailstorm which lashed the capital late this evening.
Although the slogans were loud and aggressive, no untoward incident transpired today either except the picketing of the SU office and the holding up of highway traffic till around 8 p.m. A State authorities also deployed a strong police detail at the spot to keep things from getting out of hand.
The protestors were insistent that the University not be allowed to force its way on the recruitment “agenda” and demanding that the appointment letters being issued today be suspended as well until the complete process of recruitments was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.
As the slogans grew louder and the heckling stronger, the district authorities intervened and three representatives of the SSSBS were taken to the SU office for a meeting with the Registrar mediated by the DC and SP East. The trio – Anoop Thatal, Santosh Shivakothi and Hem Kumar Gurung of the organisation returned from the meeting with a one-sentence Notice issued by the Registrar Prof. Jyoti Prakash Tamang, which read: “Sikkim University has decided to keep in abeyance, acceptance of offers of appointment issued today”.
The level distrust became apparent when members of the protest groups refused to accept this notice at face value and started nit-picking, pointing out that the notice did not have a memo number or date clearly mentioned. The notice was sent back to the SU office and it was only when the Memo Number and date were included that the protest was withdrawn and the highway reopened for traffic. By then the hailstorm had also passed over.
District officials inform that the University management decided to issue the notice “looking at the situation” and that the appointment letters in question were issued against interviews conducted on 16 February for the posts of Laboratory Assistants, Library Attendants, and teaching posts in the Earth Sciences Department. All of these, as per the SU Notice, are now kept in abeyance.
The VC, against whom the entire protest is directly focused, was incidentally not in station today either. The recruitment process at the University was called into question first by a group of assistant professors who petitioned the Executive Council alleging that clearly prescribed processes and norms had been ignored by the VC in the rush to hold the recruitments when no statutory body was in place and so that he could have his way. Interestingly, the Executive Council, instead of addressing the complaint directly filed with it, decided to terminate the services of two of the faculty members who had made the complaint. This action, supposedly justified on disciplinary grounds, was taken because they had gone public with their complaint [having released copies of the complaint to newspapers here]. The matter was eventually taken up by the groups now leading the protest and has since pulled in more allegations of nepotism against the VC.