DUTA protests against order to appoint senior administrative officers at 12 Delhi govt-funded colleges

New Delhi: The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) on Wednesday led a protest rally from the vice-chancellor's office to the chief minister's residence to raise a number of demands including removal of the 'Pattern of Assistance' document and revoking an order to appoint senior administrative officers at the 12 Delhi government-funded colleges of DU.

As per a statement, DUTA alleged that the Delhi government had not released additional grants and posts promised by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to the principals of the 12 DU Colleges in a meeting on March 16.

"This will again lead to financial crises in these colleges as they will not be paid salaries of February and there will also not be any settlement of long-pending dues. Delhi government needs to give an assurance that such delays will not take place in future and Grants-in-Aid will be released quarterly," the teachers' union said.

It alleged that the 'Pattern of Assistance' document released by the Directorate of Higher Education was a "prelude to a massive restructuring of these colleges that would inevitably lead to the dismemberment of these colleges from Delhi University".

"We remind you once again that such unilateral reworking of Pattern of Assistance without taking into consideration other stakeholders including Delhi University and employees of these colleges is both unethical and illegal. These 12 Delhi University colleges are constituent colleges and will always remain part of Delhi University," it added.

The colleges, which were earlier referred to as "100 per cent funded Delhi government-maintained colleges of DU", are now addressed in the document as "100 per cent funded Delhi government-sponsored college affiliated to the University of Delhi".

"The change in the manner of referencing clearly strengthens the apprehension that the Delhi Govt. "earlier tasked with maintaining these educational institutions, is now redefining itself as the sponsor of edu-business units" to find ways of disaffiliating them from Delhi University," the DUTA said in an earlier statement.

It also reiterated its demand for the removal of senior administrative officers who have been given additional charge of the 12 colleges.

"DUTA wants an immediate rescindment of the Order of Finance Department, Human Resource Division, dated 17.02.2021 that assigns to Senior Administrative Officers additional charge of the 12 DU colleges. The introduction of such officers is not tenable under the framework of the University of Delhi. The Office of the Principal is competent enough to look into these matters. We strongly object to such excessive interference in the day-to-day working of these colleges," it said.