New Delhi: CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee on Monday demanded the removal of Delhi University V-C Dinesh Singh at a Parliamentary panel meet here, saying he was "dismayed" over Singh's reply to a showcause notice issued on him by the Ministry.


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Banerjee made the demand at the Consultative Committee meeting of the HRD ministry chaired by Union Minister Smriti Irani.


Banerjee argued that Singh's reply had failed to convince that he was not involved in irregularities, and stern action should be taken against him, sources said.


He had earlier in a letter to Irani had sought intervention for the VC's removal and said that "as a representative of student movement in India" he was more concerned about the state of affairs in DU.


The Ministry is also understood to examine Singh's reply at a meeting tomorrow before finalising its stand on the issue.


Singh, in his reply to the showcause notice last week, had strongly defended himself. He claimed that there was no wrongdoing in rolling out the controversial FYUP programme as it had necessary approvals.


In his reply, he said the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) that was scrapped by UGC in June last year, had the sanctions of the Ministry. He also cited the findings of a committee which had given him a clean chit on diversion of funds to the tune of Rs 172 crore meant for OBC students to buy laptops.


Banerjee, along with Parliamentarians such as Derek O'Brien (TMC), Abhishek Singh (BJP) and Sanjay Sinh (Cong) put forward several suggestions for involving a greater populace and stakeholders from cross-sections of the society to finalise the new national education policy, the subject of today's deliberation.


Brien in particular underlined that minority institutions should be kept out of the purview of the Right to Education Act even as the Ministry has issued guidelines in this regard.