M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Oct 16: The convocation of the Nilambar Pitambar University was conducted this year without the ‘good wishes message’ of the Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
It is now two days after the convocation however, controversies refuse to die down much to the disadvantage of the NPU.
The NPU here in Daltonganj had its second convocation on October 14 wherein the university released its Souvenir. The controversies began when people found out that the Souvenir didn’t have a ‘good wish message’ from the chief minister. Meanwhile, the souvenir had such messages from the other VVIPs as a tradition.
The missing message has caused a lot of controversy as to whether the university did not find it essential to have the message by the chief minister in the souvenir. The souvenir contained messages from the BJP Palamu MP V D Ram; and Rahul Kumar Purwar, Secretary (Technical), Department of Higher Education.
Pro VC Dr Deep Narayan Yadav on the other hand maintained, “The University made all efforts to obtain the message from the CM, but it could not happen.”
One senior functionary of one of the 15 committees set up for the convocation, on the condition of not being named said, “The brouhaha over not having the message by the CM in this convocation’s souvenir is all misplaced as in the first convocation held in the year 2018, the then Chief Minister Raghubar Das had also not given a message for the souvenir.”
Apart from this gaffe, the convocation is also facing post ceremony criticism on three more counts. One in which one of the two top brasses of the university were found brazenly preventing an awardee from handing over his petition straight to the Chancellor Ramesh Bais on the dais.
Sources said the Chancellor, showing more magnanimity, took the petition of the said awardee and gave it to his ADC police Shrikant Suresh Rao Khotre during the ceremony itself.
Eye witnesses vouched the act was avoidable and unwarranted and the petition in question could have then passed as any piece of application if not barred by the university officials.
The mid speech observation of the chancellor Ramesh Bais, where the chancellor quipped that he was not amused to find that ‘There is no feeling of joy or glee on the faces of the awardees when it is a great moment of life for them’ has also put the NPU in a tight corner about the missing enthusiasm among the awardees.
The recipients of the awards looked glum during the convocation, said sources.
Sources further said the NPU has come under fire from the left parties and human rights groups which have accused the university of meting out ‘police action’ to over half a dozen students leaders who were detained all day long on the day of the convocation.
Police had lifted a little over half a dozen student leaders but none were lodged in the town police station fearing backlash from the student community. Four of the student detainees were taken down to Chhaterpur at a distance of 48 kms from the university, while two more were taken to the Chainpur police station two km away from the university. Another detainee was taken to the Paton police station which is 27 km from the university.
Sources said the university is facing backlash for such treatment of its students which gives credence to the public perception. It seems as if the university is trying to hide something by detaining its student leaders for the whole day by the police to save its own skin.
Sources said that the chancellor did come to know about such an action of the university prior to his coming over to the ceremony.
Police sources while talking to lagatar24.com said that it was the university which had tipped the police about the possible trouble makers who could have created chaos during the convocation. The source further claimed that the police just discharged its professional duty by swooping down on them prior to the beginning of the convocation.
Proctor of the university Dr K C Jha said, “The university refrains from making any comment on what the police do or act upon.”
