AGRI VARSITY LAND TRANSFER ROW: Acting VC has no powers to issue NOC, claims teachers’ body

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, September 23

The HP Agriculture University Teachers’ Association has assailed the acting Vice-Chancellor’s decision on issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the transfer of 112 kanals of the university land to the state Tourism Department.

“The VC was never authorised to take such policy decisions, as per the statute of the university. The acting VC who stands retired now had limited powers and was not authorised to take policy decisions,” stated the association.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that Section 13(1.f) of the University Act No. 4 of 1987 only empowers the university’s Board of Management (BoM) to accept, acquire, hold and dispose of property on behalf of the university, not the VC. The Section 24 (1) of the statute speaks about the appointment of a regular VC, who is a whole-time officer of the university and is appointed by the Chancellor on the recommendations of the Selection Committee.

The powers defined in the University Act and statute are for a regular VC and not for the acting VC. The acting VC who issued NoC for the land transfer was neither a whole-time officer of the university, nor appointed on the selection panel’s recommendation.

Seven former VCs of agriculture and horticulture universities of the state — some of them holding the post of VC for three to five terms in and outside the state — had recently written to CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to reconsider the decision of transferring university land to build a tourism village. Eight members of the BoM had held the decision of acting VC as illegal.

It’s the first time that nearly 25 per cent of the university land has been taken away for purposes other than agricultural education, research and extension.

In Uttrakhand, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, which is spread over 6,400 hectares of land is utilising more than 60 per cent of its area to meet seed production requirements of Uttarakhand and other states. The Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana and Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar have more than 8,500 hectares of land each. Both universities have been using the majority of their land for production of seeds. This has become possible due to the liberal grants from the respective governments. The university in Palampur, however, struggles to meet salary and pension requirements of the employees.