It’s chancellor who reconstitutes board of studies: Guv to HC

KANNUR UNIVERSITY

It’s chancellor who reconstitutes board of studies: Guv to HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi:25.12.2021

The governor, who is the chancellor of the Kannur University, has informed the high court that as per the practice so far, the university’s board of studies is reconstituted by the chancellor based on proposals from the vice chancellor.

The submission by the chancellor was in the form of an affidavit filed in response to an appeal related to the reconstitution of the board of studies.

Through the affidavit, the chancellor pointed out that the reconstitution of board of studies should be based on the university statutes as per Kannur University Act. In the statute (Kannur University First Statute 1998), it is prescribed that the chancellor should nominate the chairman and members of board of studies, the affidavit.

However, Section 25(xvi) of the Act also empowers the syndicate to appoint members to the board of studies, the affidavit said. Thus, a harmonious reading of the Act and the statutes provides for nomination of the chairman and members of the board of studies by the chancellor and the power of appointment of the members vests with the syndicate, as per the affidavit.

The chancellor then said in the affidavit, “In the past the chancellor had reconstituted the board of studies on receipt proposals from the vice chancellor, including the present incumbent vice chancellor. The exercise was carried out under the provisions as detailed above.”

Another Omicron case in city, govt calls meet of pvt hosps

Another Omicron case in city, govt calls meet of pvt hosps

Sumati.Yengkhom@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:25.12.2021

One more Kolkata resident, a 27-year-old who returned from UK last week, tested positive for Omicron on Friday. This is the third confirmed case of Omicron among patients under institutional quarantine in Kolkata. Earlier, a sevenyear-old boy from Farakka and a 49-year-old from Kolkata had tested positive for this variant at Telangana and New Delhi.

Even though the Omicron count in Bengal is not yet alarming, health experts fear the number could multiply soon given its high transmissibility. The state health department on Friday asked all private hospitals to keep their infrastructure ready and called a meeting with them on Monday.

The latest Omicron patient, a resident of south Kolkata, has been working in Dublin, Ireland, for the past five years. He reached the city last Friday, flying from Manchester via Abu Dhabi and New Delhi. He tested negative on arrival but developed symptoms later and was admitted to Woodlands Hospital after testing Covid positive.

“The patient has been allotted a single room in the Covid-19 unit as per the isolation protocol. He is stable,” said Rupali Basu, MD & CEO of Woodlands.

Currently, two other Covid patients in hospital isolation — one in Kolkata and another in Kharagur — are awaiting genome-sequencing reports. Another 26-year-old woman, who arrived in Kolkata from UK on December 10, tested negative for Omicron on Friday. She was Covid negative on arrival but was admitted to Beliaghata ID Hospital after developing symptoms.

‘Pvt hosps must ramp up infra for Omicron cases’

The five Omicron cases in the state and the suspected ones have international travel history. Anticipating more such international flyers needing hospital isolation, the health authorities have asked private hospitals not to refuse international flyers, who test positive on arrival, and prefer private hospital treatment.

“Some Covid-positive international travellers prefer private hospitals. Private facilities need to step up isolation infrastructure for suspected and confirmed Omicron cases,” said a health official. The health department has shared a document, ‘Infrastructure information regarding private hospital for isolation of Covid Omicron suspect admission from the airport’ with private hospitals. The hospitals have to update details, including number of Covid beds, Covid ICU beds, isolated beds for international flyers and the number of ventilators.

“We will have an online meeting with private hospitals on Monday where Covid infrastructure update, with stress on facilities for Covid-positive international travellers and those detected with Omicron,” said a Swasthya Bhawan official.

Can CM be interim chancellor in guv’s place? State explores

Can CM be interim chancellor in guv’s place? State explores

Governor Seeks UGC Probe Into Role Of Private Univs

Poulami.Roy@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:25.12.2021

The Bengal government is seeking legal opinion on whether the chief minister can be made the chancellor of state-run universities for an interim period as the governor, the present chancellor, has failed to see anything positive in Bengal universities, education minister Bratya Basu said on Friday.

“We will explore the constitutional provisions and take legal advice on whether this can be done at a provincial level,” he said in response to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s statement that he would like to call for a UGC probe into private universities’ role. Basu took it as a threat and said: “After CBI and ED, UGC is being used as a threat.”

The statement comes after Dhankhar took to Twitter to post a video in which he said none of the 11 private university chancellors or vicechancellors had heeded his invitation – as the university visitor and governor – to attend a Raj Bhavan meeting on December 23.

The governor said he would urge UGC to “seriously probe” the role of private universities since these have “breached their roles regarding the visitor”, and asked the Bengal government to reexamine appointments of all vice-chancellors.

Dhankhar complained that VCs were appointed bypassing him and said the situation was “alarming which indicated the rule of the ruler and not law”.

Vice-chancellors staying away from a Raj Bhavan meeting was not the first such instance. In January 2020, vicechancellors of state-run universities didn’t turn up for a meeting at Raj Bhavan, sparking a war of words. In the present instance, the private university heads had cited “Omicron” and their personal health fears due to age and comorbidities.

Basu said: “It is sad that we hear nothing positive from him (Dhankhar). He must shed this confrontationist attitude and work as an enabler. He now cites unionism and gives the threat of UGC. Like CBI and ED, UGC now comes to the list. You can’t expect anything more from a person who had been the legal aide of a movie star implicated in killing deer.”

Basu further said: “But if he continuously sits on files, delays decisions and appointments, we will explore the suggestion made by the Kerala governor and consider whether as an interim measure, we can replace him by the chief minister as university chancellor.”

Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan had, in an attempt to end animosity with his own government, written to CM Pinarayi Vijayan to take over as chancellor so that the governor didn’t have to interfere in “political appointments” in his role as chancellor.

The Bengal government had in 2019 curbed the chancellor’s role after it felt that the governor was standing in the way of education matters.

Full report on www.toi.in

Education minister Bratya Basu said the government will explore the Kerala governor’s suggestion and consider whether as an interim measure the Bengal governor can be replaced by the CM as university chancellor

1.6L ex gratia applications against 1.4L Covid deaths

1.6L ex gratia applications against 1.4L Covid deaths

Nisha.Nambiar@timesgroup.com

Pune:25.12.2021

The Maharashtra government has received 1.62lakh applications for Rs50,000 ex-gratia from the kin of covid deceased against 1.41lakh covid deaths registered in the state.

Officials said some of these applications may either be duplicate or there could be more applications from kin. Over 50,000 applications are being scrutinised over multiple claims, said officials.

Local authorities have been grappling with incomplete details, duplicate applications and incomplete forms, affecting disbursement of exgratia, officials said. The data will be verified with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) portal before disbursement of ex-gratia.

All local authorities have been asked to double check and verify family members’ details and then disburse the amount. A senior state government official from the state disaster management authority said that multiple IDs linked to a single patient and multiple claimants have been uploaded by many local authorities. “The local teams will check on the claimants and if there are any issues, they can approach the district level grievance committee members. Only after due checks and agreement between claimants will the amount be disbursed,” said an official.

Recently, Latur district collector BP Pruthviraj sought a report after it came to light that names of people still alive were on the list of covid deceased.

Stop passing the buck when you see files, cabinet secy tells officers

Stop passing the buck when you see files, cabinet secy tells officers

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:25.12.2021

For years, government officials have taken refuge in phrases such as “may also see” or “may kindly see” on files that move from one desk to another just because no one wants to take a call on the matter mentioned in them — a case of passing hot potatoes around in circles.

The “syndrome” has caught the attention and drawn criticism from the country’s top bureaucrat at a time when the government is seeking to speed up decision-making and reduce red tape, with cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba urging senior officers to consciously avoid taking recourse to such phraseology and encourage other colleagues not to succumb to risk-averse behaviour.

Seeking a change in the way the government works, the cabinet secretary said at a workshop on ‘Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making’ that unless government departments change their culture and take timely decisions, even big-ticket announcements made by the government will not take off.

Decisions can be taken at jr level: Gauba

Several levels don’t make any value addition; they don’t make any significant contribution to decision-making and also these don’t mean qualitatively better scrutiny. What they certainly mean is more time consumed and diffused responsibility so that they can say that so many other people also looked at that issue and so there is abdication of responsibility,” he said, referring to file submissions at multiple levels while speaking at the event which was part of the Good Governance Week.

Gauba’s comments came after coal secretary Anil Kumar Jain flagged how many officers were simply putting their signatures on files without adding any value. Road transport secretary Giridhar Aramane also cited how there was huge delay in issuing toll fee notification for highway stretches as the files had to pass through several layers of officials, which has now been drastically reduced.

The cabinet secretary said that in the government system, there is a culture of marking papers to the higher-ups even when the decisions can be taken at the junior level. “We are familiar with the syndrome of ‘may also see’ or ‘may kindly see’ so that you feel safe that it has been seen by somebody else or somebody above. I think this has to do with risk avoidance. The DoPT and DAPRG (administrative reform and grievances redressal department) should look at the root cause of why this syndrome has developed and what needs to be done,” he said.

The government has pushed the reforms to reduce the levels for file submission up to four against the earlier practice of such submission at 7-8 levels.

Flyers from Dubai must quarantine at home for 7 days

Flyers from Dubai must quarantine at home for 7 days

reports Chaitanya Marpakwar.

Mumbai:25.12.2021

The BMC on Friday made a seven-day home quarantine compulsory for all passengers arriving from Dubai, a travel hub where many change flights leading to mixing of people. Fully-vaccinated city residents won’t have to undergo an Rt-PCR test at the airport. After seven days, if they test negative they will have to self-monitor for a week more and if they test positive, they will be moved to institutional quarantine. Those from rest of Maharashtra will be transferred by the collector to their home cities and will not be allowed to take public transport. Those from other states will be allowed to take connecting flights but the airport authorities will have to inform their home destination airports about their arrival from Dubai,

Bill tabled to make min pro-chancellor of univs

Bill tabled to make min pro-chancellor of univs

Mumbai: 25.12.2021

The state government on Friday tabled amendments to the Maharashtra Public Universities Act to introduce the post of a prochancellor which will be occupied by the minister of higher and technical education. The pro-chancellor’s powers are to be wide ranging: from chairing the university's senate, its high-level decision making body, to presiding over the convocation ceremony in absence of the chancellor. TOI has access to a copy of the draft bill which was tabled in the upper house. It will come up for discussion in the coming week. Experts say the move is a blow to the autonomy of the universities, reports Hemali Chhapia.

WB seeks to axe guv, make CM head univs

The WB government plans to seek legal opinion on whether the CM can be made chancellor of state-run universities as governor Jagdeep Dhankar, the chancellor, does not see anything positive in the varsities, education minister Bratya Basu said. TNN

‘Amendments retrograde, detrimental to higher edu’

Among the amendments, the state has also proposed altering the selection method of the vice chancellor.

The state will now receive the list of five nominees picked by the selection panel, shortlist two for the consideration of the governor, the chancellor of universities.

“If the state does not approve any of the person so recommended, it may call for a fresh panel either from the same committee or after constitution of a new committee,” said the draft.

The plan has been roundly criticised by eminent academicians. “The concept of autonomous universities was given to us by the Britishers. Under that the VC is the head of the institution and no one can enter the campus or interfere in its functioning. The chancellor is expected to save the university from the influence of the state government or politics. That freedom should not be taken away. We are facing a conflicting situation,” said former vice chancellor of Pune University Ram Takawle.

Bhushan Patwardhan, former vice chairman of University Grants Commission, said the amendments are “retrograde” and “detrimental” to higher education.

“These changes will have long term adverse impact on the universities. The amendments are crossing all limits. Ministerial level interference in the appointment of the VC and selecting a person of their choice and ideology is like taking over education. If the universities’ freedom is taken away, the central government will have to step in and stop this. I hope the state reconsiders these amendments,” said Patwardhan.

He recalled that in 30 years of being a part of the university system, he had never seen such interference. Some other states have made attempts to dilute the autonomy of their universities but those were met with protests and the states were forced to retreat. Except once, when the Maharashtra Public Universities Bill was amended in 1974 and all financial powers were taken away by the state, including the right to create new positions.

“With these proposals, the state has murdered the autonomy of universities,” said former pro-vice chancellor of Mumbai University A D Sawant.

TIMES VIEW: Maharashtra now holds the dubious reputation of going against the broader national policy of depoliticizing campuses. Experts are worried about the likely impact on universities if the minister begins to chair meetings. Interference in day-to-day functioning of campuses by politicians goes against the spirit of academic freedom. It bears repetition that this government sought to directly appoint a registrar to the Mumbai University by sidestepping the procedure. The courts had to intervene and the state lost the case.