Justice Gupta?s letter yet to get response
ALMOST A week after Chairman of the Judge?s Committee for Fees Fixation, Justice Gulab Gupta shot off letters to Chief Justice of MP High Court, Chief Secretary and principal secretaries of medical and technical education department mentioning the lack of basic facilities for the committee and suspended the hearing for all professional private colleges till further order, there is no response as yet from the state government in the matter.
ALMOST A week after Chairman of the Judge’s Committee for Fees Fixation, Justice Gulab Gupta shot off letters to Chief Justice of MP High Court, Chief Secretary and principal secretaries of medical and technical education department mentioning the lack of basic facilities for the committee and suspended the hearing for all professional private colleges till further order, there is no response as yet from the state government in the matter.
Speaking to Hindustan Times from Jabalpur on Monday, Justice Gupta said that he had received no verbal or written communication from the state government on the issue as yet and reiterated that until the government makes adequate arrangements necessary for smooth functioning of the committee, he would not resume the hearing. He said that the Chief Justice of High Court had forwarded his (Justice Gupta’s) letter to government for action.
He mentioned that it is not possible for the committee to function without basic facilities like a clerk or stenographer, let alone other support like expert in accounts and other technical details. He said that apart from the OSD, who coordinates the functioning of both the committees (fees fixation and admission monitoring) and liaisons with the government, and an expert on finance, whose role comes only at the end of the fees fixation exercise, his office (as
chairman of fees fixation committee) only had a peon as support staff.
The justice said that for the fees fixation hearing the committee would be required to hear at least 400 professional institutes, look into their accounts and check their proposals in detail. As per the guidelines of the Supreme Court, the proposals are to be initially examined on the basis of salary structure of teachers, facilities to students, investment by the institute and plan for future development.
The Supreme Court emphasis was on `No profiteering and no capitation fees’. Justice Gupta said that even for the initial examination whether the proposals could be accepted, a huge exercise would be needed. ‘I had planned to complete the procedure for 2006-07 by December 16 as per High Court directive, but now it depends on the government,’ he said. He also mentioned that if the colleges’ proposals were not acceptable, the committee would have to draw its own proposal, which would be another detailed exercise.
It may be mentioned that, apart from the facilities like proper support staff, the state government also failed to provide accommodation and local transport to Justice Gupta, which caused him severe hardship during his stay in Bhopal for hearing. The Chairman had suspended the hearing for the professional private colleges till further order on September 10, on second day of the hearing for the colleges of Bhopal and surrounding areas.
The repeated efforts of Hindustan Times to contact PS of Medical Education I M Chahal bore no fruits. The PS of Technical Education Dilip Mehra is on leave.