Darjeeling Government College launched courses without govt nod: NBU

Siliguri/Darjeeling, Dec.1: North Bengal University today said the Darjeeling Government College had introduced four new under-graduate courses and enrolled more than 200 students without the mandatory permission from the state higher education department.

The four courses — BSc computer science and bio-technology (honours) and BA sociology and anthropology (pass) — were introduced in this academic year by former principal Dipak Ray.

An NBU official said Ray had flouted rules by starting the courses without sanction from the director of public instruction (DPI) under the higher education department

“The colleges have to first place the proposal for new courses before the DPI. If the DPI gives the nod, a letter of approval will be sent to the college and a copy of it to the varsity. Thereafter, the varsity sends a team to the institution to assess the infrastructure and faculty before granting its nod for the courses,” said the official.

He said the NBU had not received any letter from the DPI till date and had come to know about the issue from the new principal.

“We immediately called up Anish Chattopadhyay, the DPI. He told us that he had not received such a proposal from the Darjeeling Government College. Former principal Dilip Ray has grossly violated government norms and he is accountable for the problems faced by the students today,” said the varsity official.

The NBU authorities said the recruitment of 28 part-time teachers for the four courses had also been carried out without the DPI’s consent.

The classes had begun on October 1 with 200 students in the BA subjects and 14 in the BSc streams. The varsity had already rejected the registration of all 14 honours students. The other 200 students pursuing the pass streams fear they, too, will face the same fate.

The varsity said it had no power to reject or approve the registrations as the courses had not been approved by the government. The current principal, Lalita Ahmed Rai, had said the varsity would be requested to allow the 200 students who had taken up sociology and anthropology subjects to switch over to other pass courses.

“When the courses have not been approved by DPI, the question of sanctioning or rejecting the registrations of students by the varsity does not rise at all. We don’t have the power to take such decisions. We have allotted specific seats for pass course and honours subjects. Allowing the students to cross over to another pass course would mean an increase in the number of seats,” said the NBU official.

Another violation of rule during the tenure of the former principal has also come to light.

Thirty-two students have been admitted to MA English at the college when the NBU had allotted only 25 seats for the course. Although the college requested the NBU to accommodate the additional seven students, the varsity has not made any commitment.

The faculty council of the varsity decides on all matters pertaining to post-graduate courses at the university and affiliated colleges. No meeting of the faculty council has been scheduled to discuss the issue.

The Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha threatened that it would launch an agitation if the problems faced by over 200 students were not solved by Saturday.

TT