In a bid to accommodate its own party members in Delhi University colleges, the Arvind Kejriwal Government has written to all colleges of the DU funded by the Delhi Government to stop all appointments until full-fledged governing bodies (GBs), including Government-nominated members, are in place.
There are 28 Delhi Government-funded colleges in Delhi University of which, 12 are fully funded by it and 16 others receive five per cent. The Kejriwal Government is making an effort to control the management of the 28 colleges by appointing five members in each governing bodies at the earliest. There are around 4,000 vacancies in Delhi University’s colleges and the university administration has taken steps to fill the vacancies.
Administrative Officer of Delhi Government’s Higher and Technical Education Department SK Tyagi has written to the principals of the colleges run by the State Government, stating that it has been decided that no regular appointment should be made by the governing body till members are nominated to the governing bodies by the Delhi Government as required by Statutes 30 of Ordinance XVIII and EC resolution No 51, dated November 3, 2012. The Higher Education Department comes under Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The officials confirmed that the letter was issued at the direction of Sisodia.
The governing bodies are the principal decision-making bodies. The Government has been nominating people to the GBs of the 28 colleges. Each GB comprises 15 members — 10 Government nominees, the college principal, two people nominated by the university and two from among the college teachers. Of the 10 Government nominees, five are directly nominated and five are selected from the panel prepared by the university.
In its 49-day regime, then Education Minister Manish Sisodia had written to DU and decided to change the process of appointing nominees to GBs. It was decided then that 140 nominees will be selected by open public advertisements, thereby eliminating “individual choices without properly going into background and contribution of the persons nominated”.
It would be pertinent to mention that, in fact, the screening committee to pick the final 140 members out of 240 applicants was never formed but the final list of 140 was ready by February 14. This gave rise to speculation in Delhi University academic circles that majority of AAP volunteers were accommodated in the final list.