SHILLONG, APR 7: The MeTTA, NEHUTA and MeCAW have sought the intervention of the President of India for ending the alleged violation of the rule of law and university rules by the NEHU vice chancellor Prof SK Srivastava.
In a joint memorandum, the three bodies have requested that the gross misuse and abuse of power by term expired Prof Srivastava be restrained as such arbitrary acts constitute gross violation of rule of law and University rules.
They also urged the president to resolve repeated and continuous violation of all rules by Prof Srivastava and his coteries in serious matters like abdication of VC’s office on 4th and 7th of January, 2021 without handing over the charge and appointment of PVC as Chief
Vigilance Officer by violation all rules and attempts at conducting recruitment.
The three bodies, with grave concern state that a term expired VC taking policy decisions and conducting functions that have long term consequence amounts to subversion of standards and it crosses all ethical boundaries.
“How can a term expired Prof Srivastava, who is extended indulge into such flagrant violation of rules in order to carry out functions with long term implications?
Appointment of Prof H Lamin as CVO, in spite of being the PVC and being involved in ‘tendering, procurement and recruitment’ is a gross violation of rule of law as a person involved in tendering etc is explicitly debarred from holding office of CVO in Central Vigilance Commission manual, 2017,” they said.
They organizations further stated that the PVC and CVO, being the same person and the same person chairing ‘tendering, recruitment and procurement’ means that as CVO, the same person shall have access to
evidence on which serious charges of anomaly and corruption might subsist.
Further in reply to an RTI query, they said the Central Vigilance Commission has made it clear that they are simply not aware of appointment of CVO by NEHU since 1.1.2021, which they should have known, as per procedure established by rule.
“The RTI reply makes it clear that the appointment of CVO did not follow the procedure of appointment prescribed by CVC manual, 2017. Therefore, appointment of PVC as CVO not only vitiates the neutrality of the position of CVO, but it establishes a collusion between those who are involved in malpractices and the CVO, as the CVO is involved in works like ‘tendering, procurement and recruitment’, which are supposed to be subject matters of investigation by CVO,” the organizations said
According to them, the UGC has already written to Secretary, Ministry of Education to consider Enquiry and to take appropriate action, on receipt of serious complaints of violation of rules of the University by the Vice-Chancellor Vide F.No.35-20/2012(CU)/ dated 12 th January, 2021.
Govt. of India circular issued by erstwhile MHRD letter F.No.19-58/2014-Desk (U) dated 7 th August, 2014 clearly stated, “an officer appointed to perform current duties of an appointment can exercise administrative or financial power but he cannot exercise statutory powers, whether those powers are derived direct from an act of parliament..”.
They said the term extended VC has to be governed by this important normative, legal and ethical restraint, as per the laid out rule. In this context, an attempt made by Prof.S.K.Srivastava to initiate the process of recruitment is nothing but an undue exercise at this stage, when his term expired and the process of selection of the new incumbent reached its final stage.
“Given such high handed, arbitrary, irresponsible and irregular propensity to act, one after the other in a serial violation of all norms by the VC and the PVC, it is necessary, the three bodies asserted, that the University administration needs to be relieved of mess as soon as possible in larger public interest,” they said.
By Our Reporter
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