Shillong, Sep 21: The North-Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) has once again raised the matter of alleged corruption against Vice-Chancellor Prof PS Shukla with regards to development work at the Tura’s NEHU campus.
According to NEHUTA, the then Registrar, Omkar Singh, on March 6, 2024, signed an MoU with the Manipur Tribal Development Corporation (MTDC) for an Rs 82 lakh road carpeting contract without going through the necessary channels, namely the Building Committee, Finance Committee, or Executive Council of NEHU.
The payment for the work was rushed through just 15 days after the contract was awarded even though the work had not been completed, NEHUTA alleged.
It was after that that Shukla approved a Rs 98 crore (or Rs 94 crore, the figures differ depending on the source) project awarded to the MTDC again, without, NEHUTA claimed, the requisite approvals.
NEHUTA unequivocally condemned “these acts of corruption” and the supposed misuse of the VC’s office, the association said in a release today.
Apparently responding to accusations that it was deliberately hampering development of NEHU Tura, though without addressing the charge directly, NEHUTA said that it “is fully committed to the development of all its campuses, including the Tura campus, but not in the corrupt manner practiced by Prof Shukla by violating Government of India rules and bypassing the statutory provisions of NEHU in order to favour a particular agency.” It added a call for Shukla to be removed by the central government from his post.
