Editor,
This is with regard to the case of exploitation and FIR against the Dean, College of Home Science, Central Agricultural University (CAU), Tura by one medical staff and contractual security guard of the college.
It has come to my knowledge from my friends in the college that an enquiry committee was sent by the university to the college to find the merits or lack of it in the FIR raised.
However, on the course of the enquiry it seems the committee, on pressure exerted by the incumbent Dean with her contacts in the ICAR, seems to have been misled into finding who in the college have supported the complainants passively or actively in lodging the FIRs.
It is unfortunate that instead of going into the allegations of exploitation which may well fall into the purview of stringent SC and ST Act and sexual harassment at workplace, the university authorities are indulging in intimidation of staffs and the complainants. I have also learned that one of the complainants has been served with a show cause notice for going to the police and lodging the FIR.
A university is the highest place of learning and they are the torchbearers of the moral compass of a society and there should be justice done in a university and justice must also be seen to be done.
Instead of providing justice to the aggrieved parties, it would appear the university authorities are more inclined to assign motives to the complainants and to anyone they think to have supported the complainants.
For centuries, teachers have been accorded a high place in our society because of the important role they play in shaping our society and if the authorities of one of the highest places of learning that we have here indulges in unjustified muzzling of complaints against one of their own top officers, it is indeed a sorry state of affairs.
I, therefore, request the various stakeholders in our society, NGOs, activists, government agencies etc to intervene so that no undue pressure is exerted on the enquiry committee and make sure that the committee does it mandated duties without fear or favour and the staffs and students of the said college are enabled to express their grievances.
If it’s to be to an internal committee, so be it. If the internal committee is compromised for any reason, there shouldn’t be anything wrong in approaching other remedial means or authorities for justice.
I also appeal to the university authorities to let justice take its course and set an example for all of us to follow. They are after all the highest place of learning and the values that preach and adhere to will show us the way.
