Selecting Vice-Chancellors

THIS is with reference to the article “Haryana’s Troubled Varsities — Renaming is not the answer (Oct 21) written by D.R. Chaudhary and the letters to the Editor by Anil Bhatia from Hisar, “Decline of varsities” (Oct 26) and Dr Jatinder Prasad from Rohtak, “Sick universities” (Nov 5), respectively.

Mr Chaudhary says that “the system invests the political bosses with the power to select persons to run the universities”. Mr Bhatia says that “the Vice-Chancellors are being appointed not only on purely political considerations but also on extraneous grounds of caste, creed and sycophancy.” Dr Jitender Prasad goes on to say that “since Vice-Chancellors are appointed on political considerations, the university atmosphere... gets vitiated”.

In my view, this political power or interference in appointing the Vice-Chancellors can be minimised to the maximum extent in case the persons are selected first and appointed thereafter as the Vice-Chancellors.

Here it is relevant to mention that the persons are first selected by the selection committee for the post of Lecturers, Readers and Professors and appointed thereafter by the university for its teaching departments/colleges. State Public Service Commission (Selection Committee/Commission) selects the persons for the posts of Lecturers/Principals, class I & II officers first and Government through its Chief of the State i.e. Governor appoints them thereafter. I.A.S., I.PS. I.F.S. etc are too selected first by the Union Public Service Commission and appointed thereafter by the President of India.

In the eyes of law, the appointment made by any authority without following the selection procedure (especially when the procedure is there) is wrong and absolutely quashable by our judiciary.

The relevant selection procedure recommended by the UGC Committee on the appointment of Vice-Chancellors in Indian Universities (1991) is as under:

The selection of a Vice-Chancellor should be through proper identification of a panel of names (3-5 persons) by a Search Committee. The Search Committee may comprise (a) a nominee of the Visitor/Chancellor, who should be the chairman of the Committee and should be selected in consultation with the government concerned (Central/State); (b) a nominee of the Chairman, University Grants Commission; (c) a nominee of the Executive Council of the University; and (d) a nominee of the Academic Council of the University.

The nominees of the authorities shall be persons of eminence in the sphere of education and shall not be connected in any manner with the university concerned or its colleges or any constituent parts. The Visitor/Chancellor should appoint the Vice-Chancellor out of the panel.

In accordance with the above recommended selection procedure, I would like to submit that whosoever is a distinguished educationist-cum-excellent administrator having flair for the administration of a university may offer his/her candidature before the Search Committee and should be appointed thereafter as the Vice-Chancellor.

OM PARKASH WADHWA
Gohana

Crippled infrastructure

We are living in the age of information technology, satellite, internet, e.mail, fax, telex. Communication has become very fast. Within seconds one can reach any part of the world. MTNL has started accepting the bills through Internet. Many schools in Delhi are teaching/imparting education through internet. This is a wonderful sign of growth. It gives confidence and moral boost that we are moving with pace. On the contrary the most populous region of NCR Gurgaon is having crippled infrastructure. Most of the police stations in Gurgaon are without basic infrastructure like telephone, namely police station in Sector 4, 7, New Colony and many other. There is no access to police if anything goes wrong. In case of emergency or immediate help one is helpless keeping in view the invasion of Kachha Baniyan Gang in rural districts of Haryana. It has been observed the police men are always on the look out, search of prey and always try to trap the people in the snare, specially traffic police men. Behaviour of the police should be friendly, open and more interactive.

Power breakdowns have become a regular feature for the last one month in the city. Everyday 3-4 hours from 5.30 a.m. to 8.00 a.m. when children are getting ready for school and officegoers for their office, in the evening from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. when children are studying and people coming home there is no electricity.

If these power cuts are regular the district administration should announce properly so one can plan accordingly.

The Gurgaon telephone department is most inefficient and irresponsible. It seems it does not exist at all. There is absolutely no response on three digit helpline numbers (197, 198, 180). At least a month is required to get the telephones on, if fortunately the complaint is registered at all. The telephone office, located near Ajit Cinema Hall seems non-functional. Nobody picks up the telephone except GM’s PS and DGM’s PS with the same reply that “Sahib” is in a meeting or contact concerned SDO who is never available as a routine.

SANJEEV SHARMA
Gurgaon