JNU faculty, students'' union question admin over hurry in adoption of new EWS quota

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 12

Teachers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University along with students' union on Tuesday denounced the varsity administration for calling an emergency Academic Council meeting to discuss the adoption of 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) and the 25 per cent increase of seats across the disciplines in line with the government's recently-notified reservation policy.

Amid vociferous protests from the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) and the students' union the meeting's venue had to be shifted to an alternate place followed by the passage of the "agenda items" were passed after due deliberations and discussions, said JNU Registrar Dr Pramod Kumar.

The administration said that all entry points to the Convention Centre (initial venue) were blocked by teachers and students who in turn questioned the urgency of the meeting and called it "illegal" on the ground that neither the notice for the same was circulated by the registrar 21 days in advance nor the agenda papers were provided to members 10 days before as mandated by the statutory provisions.

JNUTA president Atul Sood said the agenda papers contain no details about the source of additional funds for carrying out the expansion of infrastructure, faculty and staff to implement the expansion in admissions.

Urgency cannot be cited as a pretext for short circuiting of democratic discussions on such a crucial matter, and that too, without any commitment of funds, noted Atul.

However, the administration said the AC meeting was conducted per varsity regulations (M1- 3 (2) which authorises the vice-chancellor to convene an emergency meeting of the council at short notice to consider issues of special importance or urgency.

Faculty demanded that the meeting be held on a later date with adequate representation from all stakeholders of the varsity to ensure the new EWS quota system is effectively harmonised with the JNU Act and existing reservation policy.

"The MHRD, UGC and the administration which pushed for a drastic seat cut over the last two years in the university's research programmes has actually made a mockery of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006," said the JNU faculty who joined by the members of the students' union (JNUSU) continued their to protest outside the Convention Centre, the venue of the meeting.

They claimed that the representatives of the JNU teachers' body and JNUSU were barred from the meeting, on which the JNU administration argued the JNUTA and JNUSU office-bearers are not full members of the AC but special invitees.

"The main and important agenda of the AC was adoption of a government notification on reservation for economically weaker sections and there was no scope for amendment of this item," said the registrar, adding that the protesting faculty and students wanted to disrupt the meeting preventing the AC members from discharging their responsibilities.