Patna: A war of letters and orders has broken out between the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government and Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar over who has authority over the 17 state universities and their affiliated colleges.
On 30 August, Arlekar’s office shot off letters to the vice-chancellors of the 17 state universities warning of attempts by “individual officers” to undermine his “unambiguous power and authority” as chancellor and asking them not to pay heed to such instructions. The letter also invokes a 2009 order asserting the governor’s authority over state universities, asking them to follow it “in letter and spirit”.
The letter from Arlekar’s office came days after Bihar’s additional chief secretary (education) K.K. Pathak ordered state universities and their affiliates to ensure teachers submit details of each class they take.
A day after the governor’s office issued the letter, the state education department hit back. In his response, education secretary Baidyanath Yadav asked the governor’s principal secretary, Robert. L. Chongthu, to “enlighten the education department about the chancellor’s ‘unambiguous powers’”, as referred to in the letter.
“It would be of great help to us if specific provisions regarding these could be made available to us,” Yadav wrote in his letter, adding that the governor’s office should also make the name of the “individual officer” known.
On Friday, the state education department issued yet another order to V-Cs, asking them to punctually report to their offices every day and inform the department of any leave of absence.
ThePrint tried to reach Pathak, Chongthu, and Yadav both in person and via text messages. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
Meanwhile, the ruling Janata Dal (United) maintains that the education department’s August order was aimed at holding universities accountable.
“We’ve seen the (governor’s) letter and there is no doubt he meant K.K. Pathak,” Neeraj Kumar, spokesperson of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), told ThePrint. “But the point is that the government funds these universities and has a right to intervene whenever there is corruption. There’s anarchy in the universities for which we get blamed. There’s a need to strike a balance and we expect the governor to intervene in favour of betterment of the universities.”
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Governor’s letter, education department’s response
In August, Pathak asked universities to ensure that teachers kept a record of their classes, including what they taught and how many students attended the lectures.
Official sources told ThePrint then that the order came after a rise in complaints that teachers were leaving their syllabus incomplete.
On 30 August, Chongthu, principal secretary to the governor, recirculated a 2009 order asserting the governor’s authority as chancellor of the state universities. That order, issued by then governor Devanand Konwar, came at a time when he was having a power tussle with Nitish Kumar, who was also CM then, over the appointment of vice-chancellors.
In the letter, Chongthu wrote, “Public confusion is being sought to be created by certain individual officials, illegally and recalcitrantly, with attempts of undermining the established autonomy of university administration as well as clearly laid down and unambiguous power and authority of the office of chancellor in matters of running the affairs of universities”.
He added, “In order to clarify the matter authoritatively and once for all, the honourable chancellor in exercise of powers conferred to him under Section 9, sub-section 7ii and 8 of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976 considers it necessary to issue orders to the universities and accordingly to all VCs and other statutory officials of the university to comply with and carry out faithfully the office of the vice-chancellor.”
The letter also implies that state universities are not obliged to follow any directions that don’t have the chancellor’s approval.
In his response, education secretary Yadav said his department followed prevailing laws and that state universities frequently sought its guidance.
It also said that the state government earmarks Rs 4,000 crore for universities and is currently facing “more than 3,000 cases in the Hon’ble High Court and Hon’ble Supreme Court”.
“If the chancellor’s secretariat is so keen on enforcing its ‘unambiguous powers’ in running the affairs of the universities, then the chancellor’s secretariat is well advised to fight these cases directly and consider filing intervention petitions in each of these,” Yadav wrote in his letter.
Meanwhile, the state government Friday issued new orders asking vice-chancellors to remain in their offices and inform them “anytime they have to leave their headquarters (offices) or go on leaves”.
The order also tells V-Cs to conduct inspections in affiliated colleges and visit student hostels, and further informs them of a control room set up by the education department to allow students to lodge their grievances.
Previous run-ins
This isn’t the only standoff between the governor’s office and the Nitish government since Arlekar was appointed as Bihar governor in February.
In August, the state’s education department clashed with Arlekar’s office by issuing an advertisement for appointing vice-chancellors just days after the Raj Bhavan had issued its own. Eventually, the education department withdrew its ad after Nitish intervened.
There have been other issues too. In May, the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party unit accused the Nitish government of denying Arlekar access to helicopters for his official visits within the state. Last week, Arlekar didn’t attend an event held to lay the foundation stone for Nalanda Open University.
The BJP has also frequently accused the Nitish government of harassing Arlekar, a Dalit governor.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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