Delhi University

NEW DELHI: What links a salon owner, guest teacher, property consultant and an electrician with Delhi University? They were all nominated by Delhi government to the governing bodies of some DU colleges and are now the bone of contention between the government and the institution. DU’s rejection of their names has held up the formation of the GBs, in turn leading the state government to withhold funding to the colleges.

Delhi government again forwarded these name recently after their rejection last September on the ground that they didn’t “meet the university’s criteria for GB membership”. Chances are they will be rejected once again at the Executive Council (EC) meeting that DU has summoned on Friday to clear the governing bodies.

The rejections and the ensuing delay in the formation of GBs have left 12 Delhi government-funded colleges in financial distress with no money to pay the salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff for two months now.

A Delhi Government official claimed that DU hadn’t responded to the nominations yet. “We forwarded the list of people we wanted on the GBs, but the university has not said anything," the official said. However, EC member V S Negi contented that DU had asked the state government to reconsider some of the names last October. “There were many names in the list that DU teachers weren’t happy about,” he said.

When TOI contacted the people whose names were in dispute, they claimed to be “social workers” and, therefore, eligible to become GB members. The university asserted, in turn, that the EC members could not confirm the NGOs these nominees were associated with, leading to their rejection.

Harun Salmani, a School of Open Learning graduate nominated to the Acharya Narendra Dev College GB, runs a unisex salon in Indraprastha Extension and denied any connection with the Aam Aadmi Party. He, however, couldn’t say why his name was suggested for the GB other than to conjecture it was perhaps because he was a social worker.

Delhi government proposed the name of Dharmendra Kumar as GB member for Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences. The CV sent to DU as part of the process stated that Kumar was an electrician with eight years’ experience. Kumar, another SOL graduate, stated, “I was nominated because I have been working with RWAs as a social worker.” He added, “I have no connection with higher education, but if someone wants to work for the good of colleges, why stop them?”

Nominated for the post at Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Nitin Bhot, a property consultant with a BA degree from IGNOU, also declared himself a social worker. “Since the time I was in DU, I have remained in touch with college students and am always ready to help them,” he said.

The EC, in its resolution number 51 in 2012, had decided that anyone nominated to a GB of a college funded/maintained by Delhi government had to be either “a person of eminence with a demonstrated interest in the area of education or those who have made significant contribution towards the promotion or administration of higher education, person of eminence in sports, culture or the arts or person of eminence in the sphere of development of education institutions.”

According to Negi, “Many of Delhi government’s nominations to the GBs don't fall in the three categories laid down by the EC. Sujit Kumar, professor of commerce at BR Ambedkar College, who hasn’t got his salary for two months, added, “You need people connected with education. Social workers can be nominated, but they should be associated with education.”

