Shillong, Jun 1: The North-Eastern Hill University Non-Teaching Staff Association (NEHUNSA) has welcomed the Union Ministry of Education’s advertisement for a new Vice-Chancellor at NEHU while cautioning that any attempt to extend the term of incumbent, Prof PS Shukla, would be “detrimental to the overall health of this university.”
In a letter to the Union Education Secretary, NEHUNSA said it “appreciates and welcomes the much-awaited advertisement,” but noted that it was “expected much earlier” given the “ongoing crisis” surrounding the varsity due to Shukla’s “incompetence”.
The association accused Shukla of having “voluntarily chosen to abandon the university headquarters in Shillong, at the same time trying his level best to interfere remotely from a distant location in the academic and administrative sector.”
The VC has not been seen in Shillong in nearly a year and a half following violent and sustained protests against the manner he was running NEHU, with accusations that he was violating statutes and was running a corrupt administration.
NEHUNSA hopes that the next VC will be well qualified in academics and administration and will be appointed in a transparent manner. These were the same hopes that stakeholders had when Shukla took on the role five years ago, though they did not bear fruit.
The association urged that the appointment process be completed “at the earliest, preferably before August 2026, to avoid any leadership vacuum.” Shukla is set to stand down at the end of July.
On the transition, NEHUNSA said it would be “delighted that the Acts and Statutes of the University are honoured in a manner that, on the expiry of the tenure of Professor PS Shukla as the Vice-Chancellor, the senior-most Professor shall take charge as the acting Vice-Chancellor of NEHU.”
