The Delhi University Teachers’ Association on Monday began its three-day “public hearing” against Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh to turn the spotlight on his alleged irregularities.
The move comes more than a week after the Union Human Resource Ministry issued a show cause notice to Singh, asking him why he should not be removed from his post. He has been given 15 days to respond to the allegations against him.
Students, teachers and parents shared their experiences of the academic situation in the varsity, DUTA said.
Bela Shelat, mother of a Political Science (Hons) student at Sri Venkateswara College, spoke about how the “arbitrary” withdrawal of the revaluation scheme affected her son’s career.
She said the administration asked her son to give up seeking redressal.
Students Neeraj Kumar and Shahnawaz had complaints related to functioning of the School of Open Learning.
Ill effects
DU’s academic council member and teacher of Commerce Hemchand Jain spoke about the ill effects of the controversial four-year undergraduate programme on the Commerce discipline.
He alleged that training in the fundamentals of the discipline became dispensable as the university administration became more inclined toward promoting “market-friendly” specialised areas.
In the show cause notice, Singh has been asked to explain the circumstances under which he introduced the now-scrapped FYUP. The programme was rolled back after the NDA-government entered office and following the University Grants Commission’s pressure to do away with it.
Academic Council member and teacher of Computer Science V S Dixit accused the university of disregarding all AICTE norms related to technical support, course content, class sizes and student-teacher ratio while switching to BTech degrees. It is precipitating the crisis of AICTE approvals, he said.
With the introduction of FYUP, the then BSc programmes were converted to four-year BTech courses.
Executive Council member A K Bhagi said an overwhelming majority of teachers and students are demanding the VC’s removal and hoping for a reversal of many of the academic changes initiated or carried out during his tenure.
The ‘junsunwai’ (public hearing) will continue for the next two days, focusing on illegalities and financial irregularities, DUTA said.