Student and teacher bodies in Delhi University have welcomed the reported show cause notice to DU Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh.
The central government has given Singh 15 days to reply to the notice served to him on Tuesday.
The VC has been accused of putting the career of thousands of students in jeopardy by forcefully implementing the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP). He had also been charged with diversion of Rs 172 crore meant for OBC students in university colleges and departments to buy laptops.
With a change in guard at the Centre last year, protests and demonstration from the anti-FYUP lobby had intensified. Following which, the University Grants Commission had issued an order for rollback of the programme.
Student and teacher unions say their demand for sacking of the VC started soon after they began their struggle for scrapping of FYUP. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association in August last year had issued a ‘white paper’ on alleged academic and financial irregularities by the university administration.
Taking cognisance of DUTA’s dossier questioning the varsity’s functioning, the Human Resource Development Ministry had directed DU to submit a point-by-point explanation on each issue raised in it, DUTA president Nandita Narain said.
“We thank the Union HRD Minister for initiating this inquiry on the demand of the student community and serving a show cause notice to the VC. The guilty should be punished. But mere sacking from their posts will not be sufficient. Criminal proceedings should be initiated against those responsible,” ABVP Delhi secretary Saket Bahuguna said.
The ABVP-led DU Students’ Union slammed the VC for running unaccredited BTech courses. Singh’s five-year tenure will end on October this year.