RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 25: Former syndicate member of Vinoba Bhave University (VBU) Hazaribagh Yamuna Prasad Yadav has written a letter to the university’s vice-chancellor demanding promotion for Annada College teachers and a properly constituted governing body to run the college.
Annada College has been running since 1979 in Hazaribagh. Presently, it has the strength of more than 10,000 students and 100 staff.
Yadav said that the teachers of the college have never got a promotion and due to a lack of a properly constituted governing body, complaints regarding anarchism in the college keep on coming to his knowledge.
Informing the status of the college, Yadav said on January 4, 1989, the Bihar government gave the status of minority college to the educational institution. But when Jharkhand came into existence in 2000, its status turned into a general affiliated college.
An insider supported Yadav saying the college is being run by a principal-in-charge and it has become a pocket institute of a section.
“Due to lack of a properly constituted governing body, disputes often arise and an FIR has also been registered against the principal-in-charge Neelmani Mukherjee,” the insider said without going into details.
On contacting college secretary Sajal Mukherjee for his comment on the matter, he said: “The college has a permanent affiliation, posts are sanctioned, minority status exists and the governing body is as per the rules of the minority college. Someone writing or saying something does not debar the college the minority status.”
Meanwhile, another insider said: “National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions under the Ministry of Human Resource Development gives the minority status to the educational institutions based on six religious communities notified by the Ministry of HRD under the NCMEI Act 2004, viz Muslim, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Persian and Jains only. Linguist minorities do not come under the ambit of the NCMEI Act 2004. Hence the question of empowering any agency to issue minority certificates on a linguistic basis does not arise.”
On being asked the same, Sajal Mukherjee said that article 30 (1) of the constitution of India gives linguistic and religious minorities a fundamental right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. These rights are protected by the prohibition against the violation.
