On the day of the 113th Academic Council of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), teachers and students of the university walkout of the meeting in protest against the presence of Registrar, Retired Col. Omkar Singh.
The teachers and the students asked the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla to ask the Registrar to leave the Academic Council meeting but his failure to do so made the students like the NEHU Students’ Union and the NEHU Khasi Students’ Union to lock the office of the Registrar.
Sandy Sohtun, president NEHUSU said that the Registrar is incompetent and ineligible to hold the post.
Sohtun said that during the Academic Council meeting of the NEHU, which is the highest decision making body, the Registrar was the secretary, who was chairing the meeting as well as noting the minutes.
According to the NEHUSU president in the recent past, the students’ body had met the Registrar on issues regarding admissions in some of the departments of the university and even teachers came to meet him on issues related to the students.
“But whenever we meet him he tells us that he does not know about the Acts and Ordinances of the University,” Sohtun said.
The NEHUSU president slammed the adamant attitude of the Vice Chancellor even as he added that the University belongs to the students and therefore their voices should be heard.
Meanwhile, Lakhon Kma, president NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) accused Col. Singh of interfering in the teaching of various departments.
“As a Registrar he does not have any write to interfere on how a department works. There are the Heads of Department, the Deans who will look into all these,” Kma said.
The NEHUTA president accused the Registrar of sending letters to the Heads of Department or Deans as if they were his subordinates.
Kma said that the Registrar does not have any previous experience of working in University and he does not understand how an Academic Council functions or other statutory bodies.
Prasenjit Biswas said that the Academic Council meeting had to be aborted because Col. Singh didn’t know how to conduct himself in the context of holding the office of Registrar of the University.
According to Biswas, the NEHUTA had pointed out that the Registrar had appointed himself as the Supervisor of national level examination (CUET) which ended in a pandemonium.
“We have found him to be unfit and with dubious integrity he has been functioning in this office,” Biswas said.
According to him the Registrar was so ill mannered that when the Vice Chancellor was standing and speaking to other members of the Academic Council he was insulted, humiliated on the floor in the visibility of everyone.
