Row over extra engineering seats

Promises are made to be broken, they say. But for once, the Delhi Government is taking extra care to ensure that its declaration of additional engineering seats to students does not end as just another promise.

With most aspiring students left in the lurch, what with the Faculty of Technology deciding against increasing seats in Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) and Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT), the Delhi Government has finally decided to take a tough stand.

If signals coming from the Education Department of the Delhi Government on Wednesday are any indication, then Delhi University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Deepak Nayyar has been given the message. And without any sugar coatings, one is made to believe.

The battle of shifting blame has been going on between the teachers and the Delhi Education Ministry ever since the latter announced its decision. While the Ministry itself has been maintaining that the University is delaying the process unnecessarily, one of the reasons for rejecting the proposal has been cited as insufficient infrastructure by the Faculty. The main issue of dispute, however, has been the pay scales recommended for teachers by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

When Delhi University opened its doors to its new batch of fuchchas this Monday, it was dressed with posters welcoming new students. But away from the hoopla and excitement that surrounded most colleges, a group of tense students spent the first day of college demonstrating outside the Vice-Chancellors office.

The subject of contention being the controversy over the increase of engineering seats in the DCE and NSIT. The Government had announced the increase of 155 seats in NSIT and 120 in DCE. The colleges were also given the go ahead for introducing a undergraduate course in IT.

The Faculty of Technology decided not to increase the seats following a decision taken on July 10. And ever since then, the two sides have been passing the buck. Approve the AICTE pay scale recommendations, was the initial demand. And when that did not seem to be happening, the reason for rejecting the proposal was cited as inadequate infrastructure.

The Government on its part has been maintaining that linking the matter of pay scales to admission is downright ridiculous. ``The pay of these teachers were revised only two years ago as per the Fifth Pay Commission. Now they want the new AICTE recommendations to be implemented. We gave DCE the option of going for an autonomous board like the NSIT. But they rejected that too. No one seems to be concerned about the future of students,'' the Delhi Education Minister, Dr. Narendra Nath, told the Hindu today.

University officials on the other hand have been defending their decision on the plea that they don't have the necessary infrastructure. ``This talk about unavailability of infrastructure is funny. The proposal would not have been passed if it had been unsure of the infrastructure available. Playing such games won't help,'' the Minister pointed out.

Harassed students have been victimised in this row of one upmanship. ``I did not opt for any of the courses or colleges that I as getting admission in simply because of the announcement that had been made. When our students delegation met the Minister, he asked us to meet the Vice-Chancellor, who in turn asked us to meet the Minister. No one is ready to say the final word. No one seems to be bothered about us,'' a student rued.

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Sanskrit may be one language that has been finding quite a few promoters in the country, but as far as the University of Delhi goes, it seems to be only creating controversies. If the introduction of Sanskrit as a compulsory subject in schools had teachers and institutions protesting, then the coming weeks might just see the brewing of yet another storm.

The UGC is now being accused of trying to push yet another Sangh Parivar outfit into the University system. And this time, as part of its attempt to introduce spoken Sanskrit as a new course.

In a circular dated February 23, the UGC had directed the Delhi University to start a Centre for spoken Sanskrit. The 25-hour certificate course has to be completed over one month and will be taught free.

The Left and Democratic Teachers Forum has alleged that not only has the UGC violated University laws by introducing the course without it being passed by the Academic or Executive Council, but invoked the existing standard qualifications for appointing university teachers by handing over the task of teaching the subject to a private institution Sanskrit Bharati.

The circular sent by the UGC cites that ``since the conduct of the course requires a special kind of training and skill and specialised mental exercise, the committee has decided to have an academic collaboration with Sanskrit Bharati for identifying proper teachers for conducting the course''.

By preferring teachers of an RSS-backed organisation to those of the University, the UGC is giving in to the vested interests of the Union Government, the body has alleged. ``Sanskrit Bharati possesses no credentials. One wonders whether this scheme is actually a game plan to make the teaching of Sanskrit and production of related study materials the monopoly of the Sangh Parivar?,'' LDTF has questioned.

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Breaking rules on the first day of college this year was another section of the University. But for these super seniors , it was just one way of getting to know their juniors. Hard as the administration tried, ragging did not really end up as a banned topic in colleges. Perhaps adding one more item to the list of things that are banned in the Capital but done nevertheless.

Lakshmi Balakrishnan

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