Protests by faculty members of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, continued for the eleventh consecutive day on Friday after a meeting of the protesters with the Vice-Chancellor “ended on a futile note”, sources confirmed to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
The faculty members have been peacefully protesting since January 16 to seek the removal of the In-Charge Dean of Academics, Prof Pervez Iqbal, who continues to hold the administrative position despite superannuating in 2018 at the age of 65 years. According to UGC regulations, no official can hold any administrative position after his superannuation in any University of the country.
The protesters said they were called by the VC to meet them in connection with their demands on Friday afternoon but the meeting didn’t yield the desired results.
“The VC is trying to buy time on our basic demand for the removal of Dean Academics. He (VC) told us that if Raj Bhawan directs him to remove the Dean, he will do it within minutes. At one time, the VC told us to give him four months to resolve all issues?” the protesters said, adding that the protests will continue until the basic demand of removal of Dean Academics is met.
If their demands are not met, the teachers have vowed to meet the LG Manoj Sinha to apprise him about “illegal continuation of the retired officer on administrative position in violation of UGC regulations.”
The protesting teachers are also demanding promotions under CAS which are pending for the last many years. Voices are also growing for a high-level probe by investigating agencies like Crime Branch and ACB into Rs 12.1 crore TQIP project over serious allegations of financial irregularities in it.
An inquiry has also been sought into promotion of three associate professors allegedly without following the rule book. Insiders are alleging that these select three teachers were promoted in violation of all UGC guidelines and the matter needs to be investigated by the LG Office.
Meanwhile, amid ongoing protests, a video showing a senior functionary of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, allegedly misusing an official vehicle to transport his pet dog has gone viral on social media.
The video shows the University’s Eeco Van bearing registration number JK11D-1779 carrying a senior university officer with his pet dog purportedly from Rajouri to Jammu. The video soon went viral on social networking sites, with many students from the University alleging misuse of official vehicles and looting of public exchequer by the authorities.
“Our departments are located far from each other. We don’t have any transport facility inside the campus and here (in the video) you can see how officials are misusing the university’s transport to carry their own pet dogs,” wrote one student on Facebook, where the whole video had generated a good number of views—(KNO)
University insiders allege that several officers are frequently misusing the university transport despite taking the transport allowance with their monthly salaries. “For even personal works like buying vegetables and milk, the university administrative officers use official vans and cars to and from the main market to BGSBU. This is a routine practice and nobody is allowed to raise a voice against it,” said a group of teachers.
After the meeting, a top officer of BGSBU told KNO that “all matters were resolved.” However, the official did not divulge the resolutions for each demand and also maintained a silence about the removal of retired officer Iqbal Parvez.
Regarding the viral video, the officer initially said the administration was not sure about the timing of the video and added: “I don’t know anything about it.”—(KNO)