One of the purported objectives of the Higher education department of Uttarakhand is to provide opportunities of quality higher education for the youngsters so that they are able to meet global challenges. It also endeavours to provide trained human resource for the fast changing knowledge ecosystem. These exalted claims of the department fall flat on their faces when one visits its official website he.uk.gov.in. The website of the department has not been updated from a long time and it still shows, S Ramaswamy as Secretary. This officer now holds the position of the Chairman Revenue board after serving as 14th Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand. The website depicts B C Malakani as officiating Director and Lalit Prabha Sharma as deputy director. Interestingly these officers are now retired. Apart from showing names of officers who used to don the positions shown against them four to five years ago in the ‘Contact us’ section, all the data shown the official website is obsolete. One senior officer who was transferred long ago from the department but whose name still figures in the website told The Pioneer that he still receives phone calls from people as his phone number is shown by the website. “I have raised the issue with the officials of directorate and asked them to update the website but things have remained unchanged.’’
It is pertinent to mention here that the department has its jurisdiction over 12 government and 18 private universities of Uttarakhand. It also controls 100 government and scores of aided colleges of the state. Though the website claims to have been last updated on July 12, 2019, every information it shows is old. The department has not updated the data of the vacant posts of teachers since June 1, 2013. The information provided in the section of all important Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) which provides all important funds for infrastructure and other activities of the higher education institutes has also not been updated from almost five years. To know about the reasons for not updating the data on the official website, this correspondent tried to contact the officiating director of the Haldwani based directorate, H C Pant but his phone went unanswered.
When contacted, the Secretary ( In-charge) of Higher education department Ashok Kumar said that he would look into the matter. He accepted that the data on the website should be updated from time to time and assured that the website would soon be updated.