NEHUNSA slams VC for inefficiency

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 31, 2020

The non-teaching employees of NEHU under the banner of North-Eastern Hill Non-Teaching Staff Association (NEHUNSA) have slammed the incumbent vice chancellor Prof SK Srivastava for his inefficienciy and total failure as the executive head of the university. 

Prof Srivastava was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) by the Visitor on the September 23, 2015.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, NEHUNSA president Dr Wandondor R Synrem said the non-teaching employees, for the past 5 years have been discussing internally to solve the rumblings issues within the university but the outcome of the discussions and negotiations were dismal.

“The Vice Chancellor’s lack of leadership qualities has led to the disturbance in the day to day administrative routine work. For this reason, NEHUNSA wants to bring to the knowledge of the public and government that the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Prof Srivastava is a regular absentee from office,” he said.

“He is rarely available in station for 2 weeks in a month. This irregularity has created a disruption in the normal administrative work and has also dampened the moral and spirit of the non-teaching staff. Prof Srivastava is a Vice-Chancellor who lacks the courage to take any dynamic administrative decisions. He does not seem focused on the University affairs leading to the overall delay in taking important administrative decisions. Furthermore, we would like to portray that he does not seem to have knowledge in processing files, and frequently withholds and keeps files pending relating to very important administrative/academic matters,” Dr Synrem added.

The NEHUNSA presdent further stated that the non-teaching employees, are frustrated when important files entering the Vice Chancellor’s office are not processed in time and may take months on end to get passed. 

His 5 years tenure has proved disastrous especially in handling the various allegations that appeared in the media. 
Due to his casual approach, he did not bother to appoint regular Statutory Officers (Registrar, Finance Officer, Controller of Examination and Librarian) without which the University system is handicapped. 

Alleging that various Group A posts were not filled up, Dr Synrem said NEHUNSA being a responsible stake-holder mounted tremendous pressure in the year 2018 and under this pressure, he had to succumb to the legitimate demands and finally, the statutory Officers were appointed. Then in the year 2019, again pressurized by the NEHUNSA, the advertised posts of Group A were filled-up. 

“Having met the prescribed UGC ratio, NEHUNSA once again put pressure for advertising the vacant posts. These posts were advertised for almost a year and no initiative was taken by the Vice-Chancellor to process the appointments of the advertised posts since the files are waiting for his final approval,” he said.

According to him, at present, the University is running without a regular University Librarian and University Engineer. These posts have been lying vacant for the past 5 years. 

His term as Vice-Chancellor expired in September 2020 and now, Prof Srivastava continues to hold the Post on an extension.

“NEHU requires an abled and dynamic Vice-Chancellor to repair the damage that was done by the incumbent Vice-Chancellor. We want to draw the attention of the Ministry of Education, to expedite the process of filling up the post with a new regular Vice-Chancellor,” Dr Synrem stated.