DUTA urges L-G Anil Baijal to withdraw finance dept order

New Delhi: The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) on Thursday urged Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to withdraw a Finance department order that gives senior administrative officers additional charge of the 12 Delhi government-funded colleges of the DU.

Members of the DUTA, who marched from the DU V-C's office to the L-G's office, also appealed to Baijal to withdraw a "Pattern of Assistance" document issued by the Directorate of Higher Education of the Delhi government.

The DUTA had earlier held a protest against the Delhi government's alleged "attempt to bring in conditions of the National Education Policy (NEP) through a dubious document called the ''Pattern of Assistance'' which it autocratically seeks to impose through the governing bodies of these colleges".

"The document refers to these colleges as 100 per cent funded Delhi government sponsored college affiliated to the University of Delhi. This is absolutely wrong as these are constituent colleges of DU," the DUTA said in a statement.

"The document also mentions the Board of Governors (BoGs). The BoGs are envisioned by the NEP as the governing authorities of each Higher Educational Institution free from external control and in full control of the respective institution. The Pattern of Assistance document needs to be immediately withdrawn," the statement added.

DUTA also asked the L-G to withdraw an order from the Finance Department that gives senior administrative officers additional charge of the 12 colleges fully funded by the Delhi government.

"The University of Delhi has no such provisions and the Office of the Principal is more than adequate and capable of handling the administrative functioning in each of these 12 colleges," DUTA said.

It alleged that the Delhi government is attempting to take "the 12 colleges out of Delhi University and run them on self-financing mode to escape government funding".

It also asked the L-G to ensure that the Delhi government sanctions grants-in-aids regularly on quarterly basis so that teachers and ''karamcharis do not suffer". An executive meeting would also decide the next course of action.