The Raj Bhawan is pursuing a well meaningful agenda of enforcing discipline and work culture among public servants in newly born Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir by promising corruption free and transparency in day today working of the government. Unlike popular government in the past, now under able leadership of Lieutenant Governor Mr. Manoj Sinha, merit is the only criteria in appointments and there is no place for favouritism and nepotism to adjust incompetent ‘YesMan’ in the corridors of power by flouting rules and regulations.
Indeed, there is no denying the fact that the Raj Bhawan is fully aware of what’s ailing the Jammu University for the past couple of years and the academicians, stakeholders, scholars and civil society members firmly believes that LG surely acts as per sagacity of mind and initiate exercise without delay for search of new Vice-Chancellor to end controversies which remained ever verdant in the campus of Jammu University during three year tenure of Vice-Chancellor Prof. Manoj Kumar Dhar. The three years term of VC-Prof.Dhar stand expired and order order No :GS-3 (Appt-VC)/JU/2018/794-797 dated 12/2/2021 issued by Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to LG already cleared the intentions of Raj Bhawan by diminishing tenure of Jammu University VC from 5 to 3 years. The order of Raj Bhawan is seen as sacred gospel which always issued with much deliberations and scrutiny of facts surrounding the issue.
In the campus of Jammu University, the voices are gaining pitch for appointment of non local as new Vice-Chancellor and there are reasonable factors articulated by faculty members in support of this demand. The three years term was sufficient to prove acumen as the outgoing VC was a local and despite advantage of belonging to the JU’s faculty still stirs several controversies which are inimical to the growth of varsity. The chamber of VC is not a training nursery. Term comprising of 3 years is enough to showcase ability and acumen. Fed up with chaotic working style of local VCs, the academicians in varsity are craving for dynamic non local as new head of Jammu University.
Lot was put in public domain by responsible citizens, scholars and conscious ridden journalists on the sorry state of affairs which have virtually plagued the academic and research excellence in varsity. There are reports of large scale favoritism in constitution of Campus Cultural Committee and Library Committee. The way Controller of Examinations, Director Colleges, Registrar were reshuffled number of times during the past three years only shows all is not well in the chamber of VC. More alarming is the way varsity under Prof. Dhar handled the reported case of sexual harassment of one female faculty member of Law Department. Worst is the silence of varsity on allegations of promotions on fudging and award of PhD on plagiarism to some scholars. There are more shocking stories which were shared with JK Global News with evidences by several undergoing PhD scholars, female teaching faculty members and employees but we fully aware of our ethics and responsibility towards the society and published only those things with facts which are beneficial for the growth of institution.
In fact, the functioning of the varsity remains in doldrum because focus remained on playing politics to satiate irrelevant egos based on personal likings and disliking among each other. The recent constitution of University Council for the period 2021-24 is a glaring example of nepotism running rampant in JU. Keeping the LG secretariat in dark, Registrar of JU, Prof Arvind Jasrotia, who is also Dean Faculty of Law was made member of the Council ignoring several senior Deans, when matter of the fact is that the Registrar is a defacto member Secretary of the University Council. This is an act of fielding his close confide to get the agenda of own desire passed without objections in the Council.
The situation has been further deteriorated by elevating ineligible and juniors to responsible posts ignoring the experienced and senior most qualified faculty members. Recent appointment of Anik Gupta, an engineering graduate as Director IT is a classic example of high class favoritism. In several cases, the way decisions were taken reflects kangaroo court tradition in the varsity. Close observations of series of developments paints the varsity in red where ME becomes more relevant in place of valuable WE -the cementing factor for any institution to attain excellence in education. The vital posts of Registrar, Controller of Examination, Director Colleges Development, Director Distance Education and Librarian are lying vacant for decades and promoting a culture of ‘Ji Hazoor’ in the campus at the cost of academic excellence. There are reports of financial irregularities and utilization of first installment of RUSA funds worth Rs 33 crore on wasteful and unproductive exercises which needs a thorough audit and probe to fix the responsibility. The over hauling of curriculum for PG departments of JU is a case in point where around the world exercise was initiated with end results-Zero.
There are reports that a group of teachers in Jammu University claiming their close proximity with top leaders in Union Government have ensured of fetching extension order for incumbent VC which is an act much beyond their domain. In fact, the teachers in University are drawing much hefty salary and comfort of staying at one place and devoid of much load work. Even, the bureaucrats are not blessed with this level of perks and comfort. Thus, they are bound to divert their energy towards academic excellence and research work minus plagiarism and fudging for bringing the Jammu University to a world class highest center of learning. Least but not last, running for extension is a personal interest of individual but for LG Mr. Manoj Sinha overall growth, excellence and ensuring transparency in Jammu University is not only a priority but indeed a sacred duty.