THE MUCH-AWAITED meeting of the Universities’ Coordination Committee (UCC) — where the issue of implementation of administrative reforms in the State universities would be the main agenda — is to be held on November 13.3.
The meeting comes almost two months after the Governor and Chancellor Dr Balram Jakhar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reached an agreement to place the matter before full committee of UCC.
Raj Bhavan sources said that the major reforms are expected to get passed through the committee without any hitch. However, there might be some alterations on some peripheral points such as whether to give the power to the vice-chancellors to write the confidential reports of the registrars and whether to formally create new posts equivalent to registrars or just have the nominations on these posts.
During the first fortnight of September, the issue had raised a huge storm with the Raj Bhavan and the State Government at loggerheads over implementation of the reforms. After the Raj Bhavan formally announced the initiation of the reforms from September 5, the State Higher Education Department had stalled the implementation by not issuing the formal orders and had instead gone ahead seeking the opinions of Law and Finance Department on the matter.
The matter settled only once the Chief Minister met the Chancellor and they agreed to place the matter before the full committee of UCC. Although the Governor/Chancellor can push through the reforms on his own under the powers vested by the MP Universities Act, 1974, Dr Jakhar opted for a more agreeable path towards implementation.
{{/usCountry}}The matter settled only once the Chief Minister met the Chancellor and they agreed to place the matter before the full committee of UCC. Although the Governor/Chancellor can push through the reforms on his own under the powers vested by the MP Universities Act, 1974, Dr Jakhar opted for a more agreeable path towards implementation.
{{/usCountry}}The main point of contention in the proposed administrative reforms is the creation of three posts (nominations) equivalent to registrars — something that is not only attraction stiff opposition from the registrars, but is also being looked upon by the State Government as infringement on their role in university administration.
Registrars are State Administrative Service (university service) officers appointed to universities and representatives of the State Government in the administrative system. The proposed appointment of teachers on equivalent posts is not being taken kindly.