HYC extends support to NEHU-JAC protest over VC extension

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 7, 2020

The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) has extended full support to the agitation called by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) on Tuesday, to demand the Centre not to grant extension to Prof SK Srivastava as the vice chancellor.

“The HYC central body and its NEHU Unit strongly urge the Union Minister of Education, Ramesh Pohkriyal Nishank not to entertain any more claims of extension or reappointment of Pro Srivastava and we also urge Chief Minister of Meghalaya to pursue the matter with the ministry concerned,” Secretary of the HYC-Education Cell, Enlang Sawian said in a statement issued on Monday.

The statement alleged that the incumbent vice chancellor has failed to convene meetings of University court until he completed four years of his tenure.

“In the very first meeting of the Court convened by him, he failed to even produce annual budget and accounts of the University, a bare minimum for an administrator and academic leader. On finding random fabrication and manipulation of figures, numbers and facts, the members, including several members of parliament, external experts and fellow NEHU colleagues objected to the gross mismanagement reflected in the agenda documents.

The meeting had to be adjourned. This is the level of anarchy and sheer incompetence of Prof Srivastava,” it said

It said without passing annual account and annual report of the University in the University court, Prof Srivastava tabled these in the parliament for the years 2016-17 and 2017-18, which is a gross violation of Act of NEHU. Worse is that after tabling it in the parliament, Prof Srivastava brought these reports for tabling in University court.

It further alleged that the serious breach that cannot be recovered is that Prof Srivastava conducted convocations in 2016, 2017, 2018 without approval of University court and thereby technically invalidating award of degrees to lakhs of students. Such is his level of contempt to rules of the University.

Prof Srivastava was also alleged of failing to convene even a single meeting of the Board of Research Studies(BRS), the highest research oversight body of the University even once.

The statement said that Prof Srivastava started gross malpractice of not encouraging thesis supervisors through his Controller of Examination to give names of foreign examiners!

“In other words, the culture of research is damaged irreparably by Prof Srivastava,” it said.

Meanwhile, the HYC said that the result is that NEHU’s ranking consistently fell and now it stands at 49 in 2020. At QS ranking, NEHU stands at 108 among Indian universities.

In yet another Edu-world assessment NEHU stood at 71, which is a fall due to poor performance of leadership. The fall in rank is a clear indicator of all out incompetence and failure of Prof Srivastava, it said.