There seems to be no end to the tussle between teachers, students and the vice chancellor of NEHU, Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla.
The Joint Action Committee (JADC) comprising of NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA), Meghalaya Tribal Teacher’s Association (MeTTA), NEHU Student’s Union (NEHUSU) and NEHU Non-Teaching Staff Association (NEHUNSA) have made up their mind to scale-up the intensity of the agitation against Prof. Shukla and decided to resort to non-cooperation movement starting with the upcoming Academic Council meeting on October 31.
It may be mentioned that the JAC has on October 19 served an ultimatum to Prof. Shukla to remove the “illegally appointed” contractual Technical Officer/Senior Consultant Rohit Prasad.
“Since the vice chancellor chose to side with the incumbent,ignoring the illegality and sentiments of the stakeholders, we are left with no other alternative but to go on an all-out protest starting with non-cooperation and non-participation in the conduct of the upcoming 111th Academic Council meeting scheduled to be held on October 31 at 11 am in Multi-use Convention Hall,” the JAC said today.
In addition to the demand for the immediate removal of Prasad, the JAC also put additional demands which include immediate appointment of the Statutory Officers, University Engineer and CDC Director, solution to problems of the University Health Centre, advertisement of non-teaching posts, problems faced by research scholars, relieving of teaching faculties and technical staff who are forced to perform ministerial duties, holding of regular convocation and steps to address security lapses within the campus.
“These are the long pending demands of the three recognised statutory associations of NEHU which the vice chancellor has chosen to ignore. As he has not respected the deadline of removal of Rohit Prasad nor initiated any process to fulfill the long pending issues of the three associations of NEHU as mentioned above, we are intensifying our agitation,” the JAC said.
“If the demands are not fulfilled in a time-bound manner, the non-cooperation movement is only going to be further intensified in all future agitations, which shall be intimated to the vice chancellor in due course of time. We hope Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla understands the depth and seriousness of the demands and acts accordingly for the overall well-being of NEHU,” it added.
