Shillong, May 28: The North-Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA), North-Eastern Hill University Non-Teaching Staff Association (NEHUNSA) and North-Eastern Hill University Students’ Union (NEHUSU) have requested members of the Executive Council (EC) of the university to refrain from attending the upcoming meeting to be held in Delhi on May 30.
“As an esteemed member of the Executive Council – the principal executive body of the university, who is responsible to oversee the administrative affairs of the University as per Act, Statutes and Ordinances and Government of India CCS Rules, the three statutory associations would like to appeal to you not to attend the aforesaid meeting of the EC in Delhi on 30/5/2025,” said a joint statement of the three associations today.
“The three statutory Associations/Unions makes it clear that any member who chooses to proceed against this appeal and disregards the position taken by the associations/unions will be regarded as acting in opposition to the interests of the students, teachers, non-teaching staff and their associations/unions and the university as a whole. Looking forward to your kind cooperation,” it added.
The statement said that the three associations are deeply concerned with the affairs of the university in the current times after the regular Vice Chancellor went on Earned Leave as per the advice of the Director, Higher Education, Government of India from November 15, 2024 which he has extended till March 2, 2025 and till date he has not joined physically after the expiry of his leave in the Headquarter at NEHU Campus, Shillong.
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“This amounts to continuous absence from duty in the Headquarters at NEHU, Shillong for more than 193 days (or more than 6 months) at a stretch. The three Associations have noted that the Inquiry Committee Report on the conduct of Prof Shukla has not been made public by the Ministry of Education, Government of India,” the associations said.
They also referred to the recent statement made by Prof Shukla as undermining the discussions and agreements that the stakeholders of NEHU had with the members of the visiting team of the Ministry of Education on May 22 in NEHU, Shillong which could have resulted in normalizing the situation in NEHU.
“Moreover, Prof Shukla has again attempted to disrespect more than 135 members of the Academic Council who attended the meeting held on 21/5/2025 which was chaired by Prof SM Sungoh (Acting Vice Chancellor) as per NEHU Statute by his baseless statements. It is to be noted that Prof Shukla is on leave and has not joined his duties in the headquarter of NEHU at Shillong for more than 6 months now in violation of NEHU Act and Statutes and Government of India leave rules, the EC meeting convened in Delhi by him is, therefore, illegitimate,” the three associations stated further.
(Newmai News Network)