Teachers back Tyagi, want pending issues resolved

New Delhi: Delhi University teachers backed vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi and encouraged him not to give in to pressure but speed up the process of solving pending issues, which he has “inherited from the previous regime”.
The teachers have been questioning the slow pace of work regarding three issues — appointments of permanent teachers, pension and promotion issues. Tyagi took charge in March 2016 and there has been no meeting of the executive council for over a year now.The VC on Friday said that the academic and executive council will meet in October and November respectively.
DU court member and former EC member V K Agrawal said instead of resigning, Tyagi should call the EC meeting and form his team.
“VC shouldn’t bow under pressure of the same group that played havoc with the university system during the regime of former VC Dinesh Singh by getting support from some quarter in RSS. He should also call the court meeting to approve the budget estimates for 2016-17, fill up vacancies and hold the annual convocation,” Agrawal said.
J Khuntia, chairman, Academics for Action and Development said that if the VC resigns due to pressure from “power brokers”, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Union government will be responsible for damaging the academic environment of the university. He said, “There are serious problems which are pending including pension for the old and retired teachers and employees, permanent appointments and promotions of teachers, formation of governing bodies in many colleges, actions pending against erring principals etc. for which the entire academic community is looking up to the government and the VC for their resolution.”
DUTA president Nandita Narain also said Tyagi’s resignation would be unfortunate. While Inder Mohan Kapahy of Right-wing teachers’ group, NDTF, said, “I don’t think there is any pressure on him. But he should be more proactive and start resolving the issues he inherited from the previous regime. He shouldn’t let the people of the previous vindictive regime come back.”