The Meghalaya Confederation for Academic Welfare (MeCAW) has highlighted another failing of the Prof SK Srivastava’s Vice-Chancellorship of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), blaming the incumbent for the university’s failure to chart a course for the restart of in-person classes.
In a statement today, MeCAW Chairman Roykupar Synrem said that though the government of Meghalaya has decided to reopen colleges, NEHU has yet to inform anything to its own staff and students about the reopening of the university, hostels, physical classes as well as “completely failing” to guide affiliated colleges.
Srivastava has, according to MeCAW, “created a stalemate and failed to inspire any necessary guidance to colleges.”
This has provided more ammunition to MeCAW, who wants Srivastava removed from the Vice-Chancellorship for a variety of reasons, from alleged irregularities in the way the university issues tenders, the decline in the institute’s national rankings to the treatment of staff.
“NEHU is in a state of limbo as long as Srivastava holds office and keeps counting his days with all his failed manoeuvres that will potentially damage the educational institutions under NEHU and the university itself,” Synrem said.
MeCAW also highlighted another issue at the university, saying that the University Grants Committee (UGC) had pulled up NEHU for one of its “officers” – unnamed by MeCAW – who reportedly claimed a large amount of travelling allowance despite using the varsity’s car for transport.
“In such a limbo, MeCAW, being the body of academics, students and civil society of Meghalaya, feels that the time has come when Srivastava must resign to make it possible for the requisite functioning of NEHU in the interest of students and in the larger public interest. In the same breath, we demand that a local professor be appointed soon as the new Vice-Chancellor in the best interest of the nation, region and NEHU in conformity with the culture and ethos of the state,” Synrem added.
