Sikkim Univ VC blames misrepresentation and communication gap for spat with Govt

“KYONGSA COLLEGE AFFILIATION CAN STILL BE RESOLVED”
SUBASH RAI
GANGTOK, 14 July: “Communication gap resulting from the failure of the mediators in accurately conveying our suggestions to the State Government has created the present problem,” said the Sikkim University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Mahendra P Lama today when contacted in relation to the war of words underway between the university and the ruling party. Although the land acquisition has been a sore issue between the two for a while, matters came to a head when the University apparently refused affiliation to Government College Kyongsa, recently.

Speaking to NOW!, Prof. Lama said, “The problem related to Kyongsa College arose because of misrepresentation of our response on the HRDD application for affiliation to the CM.”
According to the VC, affiliation had not been rejected outright.
“In fact we had suggested that the State Government go ahead with the inauguration and thereby officially establish the college. They could even take in admissions, but place the students for the first year at other SU-affiliated colleges in the State,” he said.
This, he explained, was necessary because Kyongsa College had neither faculty nor infrastructure to start taking classes.
“As per my suggestion, as soon the required basic requirements were in place, they could be shifted to the new SU-affiliated Kyongsa College. This was probably mis-represented to the Chief Minister,” Prof. Lama said, adding that there was still time to do so.
“We would have helped with the establishment of the infrastructure and accommodating students at other colleges. But matters could never reach that stage,” he said.
Such an arrangement has already been done once in the past, he informed, when the Commerce stream was announced for Namchi College and students admitted there completed their first year at Gangtok College and were back at Namchi the next year by when the required faculty and infrastructure had been developed.
Leaving options open for a similar arrangement for Kyongsa College [at present affiliated to Vinayak Missions Sikkim University], the SU VC stressed that solutions can always be worked out, but would require proper discussions and added that he was always available for such discussions.
On why he rejected the Government request, Prof. Lama reiterated, “I never discarded the request outright, but I told them that the main sufferers because of lack of basic infrastructure and faculty, would be the students, which was neither advisable for the SU nor the Government.”
In this regard, he added that several private colleges were also seeking affiliation with the University and if rules were compromised for Government colleges so plainly, even they would bargain for similar relaxations and that would compromise education.
He also explained that they were not looking at complete establishment of infrastructure, but at least the basic requirements need to be in place.
“At the end, if the performances of these colleges are questioned, SU alone will be answerable,” Prof. Lama said.
On the other issue of contention – the delay in handing over of the land earmarked for the University campus at Yangyang, Prof. Lama said, “We never alleged that Government was intentionally delaying the handing over.”
According to him, after tremendous efforts, the University Grants Commission sanctioned Rs. 220 crore for the SU campus development, out of which, only Rs. 15 crore has been used thus far, transferred to the State Government account for land acquisition.
“The remaining amount is now going back unutilized,” he said, adding that he wanted to bring this to the attention of the Government.
This too, Prof. Lama believes, could be solved through proper discussions for which the mediator between the two should play a responsible and honest role.
Meanwhile, in a press release issued yesterday, Sikkim University has responded to the statements given by the spokespersons of the SDF party, referred to in the press release as “a political party”, as “unfortunate, regrettable and malicious”.
The SU release states, “Sikkim University is a non-political national institution… The activities of Sikkim University in endeavouring to transform the quality of higher education in Sikkim for the benefits of the people of Sikkim is widely known, locally and nationally acclaimed and documented. And open to any public viewing and scrutiny. As its policies and actions of last four years show that the University is single-mindedly committed to work for the promotion of higher education involving students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders in Sikkim and to make the State a knowledge hub in this part of India.”