New Delhi: The Modi government will not tolerate any act of indiscipline in educational institutions, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank told ThePrint Wednesday, just hours before the ministry suspended Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi who is being probed for “administrative lapses”.
“We will not tolerate any kind of indiscipline in education institutions, be it Delhi University, Allahabad University or Banaras Hindu University,” Pokhriyal told ThePrint over phone.
The ministry has initiated an inquiry against the V-C for “administrative lapses” during his tenure. An order was also issued Wednesday, after this interview, placing Tyagi under “suspension”.
Commenting on the recent incident at the university when the V-C made appointments despite being on leave, the minister said, “what the VC did was an act of indiscipline”.
“A committee will be constituted and it will look into the issues that have been raised against DU V-C,” Pokhriyal added. “It will follow its own course and conduct a fair inquiry.”
The action against Tyagi is in line with the minister’s new policy of regularly reviewing the working of V-Cs in central universities and fixing accountability whenever needed. This was prompted by the resignation of Allahabad V-C Rattanlal Hangloo who quit in January over allegations that he mishandled a sexual harassment case.
An administrative tussle
The inquiry and the subsequent suspension of Tyagi comes on the back of a recent administrative tussle in the university that began when the V-C, who has been on medical leave since July this year, appointed Prof P.C. Jha as registrar on 21 October, on the same day the university’s executive council (EC) was supposed to hold a meeting to appoint a registrar and financial officer following all statutes and provisions.
The EC went ahead with the meeting and, in turn, appointed Vikash Gupta as registrar.
In response, Tyagi appointed Prof. Geeta Bhatt as pro-VC on 22 October, even though Prof. P.C. Joshi had already been acting as the pro-VC. This created an administrative crisis in the university and the education ministry had to intervene.
The ministry on 22 October issued an order nullifying Tyagi’s decisions. It then initiated action against him.
While the latest incident has come as a trigger, ministry officials said that they had been getting complaints from DU faculty and administration about V-C’s inaction on various issues such as appointments and promotions.
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