JOIN USThe Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry cited “administrative failures” under Delhi University (DU) vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh’s reign to bring pressure for scrapping of the contentious four year undergraduate programme (FYUP).
The ministry brought to notice of the University Grants Commission (UGC) “lapses” on part of the varsity in the rolling-out of the programme, which included absence of “valid” approval from the Visitor (President of India).
Amid fierce protests against the FYUP, sources said the ministry cautioned the UGC that any delay in taking a final decision on scrapping the programme might lead to deterioration of the law-and-order situation in the varsity campus, for which Singh’s administration could be held responsible.
The DU had rolled out the programme with support from the HRD Ministry during the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, despite stiff opposition from a section of students and varsity teachers.
Singh managed to get the FYUP, conceived in 2012, when Kapil Sibal was the HRD Minister, passed by the varsity’s various statutory bodies, and introduced it last July, as M M Pallam Raju, too, supported it after assuming charge of the ministry following a Cabinet reshuffle.
The university claims it had sent the Ordinance to the HRD Ministry to get the Visitor’s approval. However, the ministry informed the UGC that “amendments which introduced the FYUP were not even submitted to the Visitor in terms of applicable statutory provisions”.
Confident with the backing of the ministry, Singh “perhaps” ignored the necessary requirement of obtaining the Visitor’s approval and did not pursue the matter with the ministry. The ministry officials, too, remained oblivious to it and “paperwork remained incomplete”, sources told Deccan Herald.