The teaching and non teaching staff of the degree colleges of Garhwal region is unhappy at the closure of Dehradun camp office of higher education department. The department recently closed the office which was set up with a view to monitor the colleges located in Garhwal division.
The camp office of the department was setup in the year 1996 with an objective of monitoring the aided government colleges of state. There are 15 such colleges in the state out of which 14 fall in the Garhwal region. later works of government colleges of the region were also assigned to this office. When contacted the Deputy Director College education Anju Agarwal said that the staff appointed in Dehradun office would attend Haldwani directorate from July 21, similarly the attached staff would be relieved and would join their respective colleges.
Questioning the propriety of closing the office that was set up before the creation of Uttarakhand the General Secretary of Garhwal University Teachers Association (GUTA), S K Tyagi told The Pioneer that office was actually not a camp office as being made out but was a regional office. He said that the Deputy Director posted here used to attend many meetings at secretariat, now the directorate would have to send someone from Haldwani to attend meetings in Dehradun, escalating the cost in the process.
One of an assistant professor working in a government degree college said that the closure of the camp office is unfortunate as people would now have to travel to Haldwani to get their works done. Similarly he opined that it would be very difficult for officers located in Haldwani to monitor the working of colleges located in Garhwal region.
The camp office had services of one deputy director, two assistant directors, one steno, two class IV employees and one driver. Apart from them some lecturers and non regular staff from colleges were attached here.
It is learnt that higher education Minister Indira Hridayesh was particularly keen to close this office as she believed that this office has become a favorite spot of some resourceful teachers who manage to get themselves attached here. Similarly the Government felt that closing of this office would save revenue.