Dispur stress on UGC rules

The Assam education department has asked all government and provincialised colleges in the state to accord priority in providing information to public under the RTI Act 2005, as required by the University Grants Commission rules issued last year.

The director of higher education, Phanindra Jidung, in a circular sent to all colleges recently, listed the new UGC regulations, 2010, to be enforced strictly by the colleges.

The circular was issued following a meeting of the principals of all government and provincialised colleges of the state at B. Borooah College in Guwahati in May this year.

The directorate of higher education had organised the meeting to discuss implementation of the new UGC rules.

The directive, quoting UGC rules, said college authorities should provide information to applicants seeking it under the RTI Act.

It said, as all colleges established by law made by Parliament or by State Legislature or by notification by the appropriate government, or owned, controlled or substantially financed directly or indirectly by funds provided by the government fall under the act, the colleges should be able to promptly furnish the information.

Information should be made available to the public at large through the college websites, the circular said, adding that principals should ensure that the information sought under RTI was provided in time, as stipulated in the act.

It said a teacher should be present in the college for a minimum of 40 hours a week.

Also, teachers/staff on the pretext of official work should not leave station to visit the directorate of higher education office at Guwahati without the prior approval (in an official letter) from the respective principal of the college.

The college should timely submit all kinds of statistical data of the college to the Centre whenever asked, according to the format prepared by the human resources development ministry, submit utilisation certificates to the authorities immediately after utilising the grants.

The directive asks the principals to be cautious about the rising incidence of fake certificates/marksheets issued by fake universities and also awarding of false MPhil and PhD degrees by such bogus universities.

“The principals of colleges should authenticate the certificates before submitting proposals for approval of appointment,” the letter said.

The letter asked the colleges to constitute departmental promotion committees having the principal of the college, head of the concerned department, two subject experts in the concerned subject to be nominated by the vice-chancellor of the respective university from a panel of experts.

It said, as regards academic performance indicator (API) of the teachers, required for a career advancement scheme, the director (higher education) would prepare the format in consultation with resource-persons.

Introduction of punching machines for maintenance of attendance of all categories of employees, installation of CCTV cameras for proper surveillance and timely submission of selected names of qualified students for awarding national/state merit scholarships to the government, figure in the list of the directives.