People's Democracy

ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY

Armywalla VC Violates Laws with Impunity

From a Correspondent

SOON after becoming the vice chancellor (VC) of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah (Retd) has not only filled the other two top university posts --- of the pro-vice chancellor (PVC) and registrar --- with recruits from the Armed Forces, but has also, like a true soldier, begun to destroy what his less warlike predecessors had protected over the years. It is reported in the press that the highly reputed Archaeology Section of the university is being closed down in order to provide a suitable office for a retired major general who has been directly appointed a professor (with five advance increments!) by the vice chancellor though he does not fulfil the qualifications prescribed by the UGC.

One of the first indications of how the AMU is being recklessly run under the military regime came when the Lt General closed down the AMU Press, an enterprise run by the AMU, throwing its more than 30 employees on to the streets. The step violated every provision of the Industrial Disputes Act. The latter act requires a month’s notice for closure and termination to be given to the employees. But the order of closure was issued on November 15, 2012, and it sought to close the press with effect from December 1, and asked the employees to “consider” this 15-day warning “as one month’s notice.” It was as if the army has the power to declare that 15 days are equal to 30!

Further, the Industrial Disputes Act prescribes that all entitlements of the workers, salary arrears, etc, as well as the “retrenchment  compensation” which amounts to 15 days’ pay for every year of service, should be paid ahead of the actual date of retrenchment. Though the AMU Press was forcibly closed on December 15, 2012, not a penny has been paid to the evicted employees, either of arrears of pay (for three to four months) or of the closure compensation. On April 9, 2013, the AMU Employees Union pointed out in a letter to the registrar that this means that the termination of employees’ service on December 15, 2012 stands void under the Industrial Disputes Act and that the AMU Press employees must go on receiving their full salaries until the date when their entitlements are fully cleared.  But the AMU brass has made it clear that they care nothing for the law of the land.

What is happening in regard to the AMU Press employees is just one illustration of the callous attitude of the current administration towards the lower categories of employees. In December 2012, the pro-vice chancellor (a retired brigadier) ordered in writing that six families of Group D employees must vacate their quarters (duly allotted to them) within two days, during which electricity and water was to be cut off, and, that if delay occurred, a fine of Rs 1000 was to be paid by each of them per day! Upon the Employees Union’s protest, the notice was extended by a fortnight, which too is against the AMU’s own rules that provide for a month’s notice. All this happened at the height of the winter. That the eviction was just out of spite for poor families who had the gumption of living in the centre of the university is shown by the fact that the vacated quarters have remained empty and unoccupied till date.

Rules are thus being violated with impunity every day --- to the detriment of the interest of employees. Their grievances, such as denial of relief from major penalties imposed in violation of rules, violations of regularisation of daily-wagers by seniority as per norms set by the executive council, very low rates for ‘fixed-pay’ schoolteachers, etc, remain totally unaddressed.

Discrimination on ideological grounds is also playing its part. Three teachers of the Department of History, recommended by statutory selection committees for appointment as professors in September 2012, have had their appointment withheld till date by the vice chancellor, who, under the AMU Act and statutes, has no power to do so. It is well-known that the inaction is due simply a desire to please the reactionary elements at the AMU.

All this has come along with the widespread ridicule the general cum vice chancellor has brought upon himself with his demand that he would hear the grievance of any student only if he wears a shervani and of a girl only if she wears ‘proper dress’ (a burqa perhaps)!