Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Feb 25: As the Government remains adamant on its decision of ‘hijacking’ RUSA funded constituent Engineering College of the Jammu University, the controversy surrounding the status of University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) refuses to die while the agitating UIET students and ABVP activists gheraoed the Education Minister Altaf Bukhari here today inviting Police lathicharge in which several protesters were injured.
Up in arms against the Government move of taking over control of UIET, the agitating students and ABVP activists gheraoed the Education Minister near Teacher Bhawan, Gandhi Nagar, when he was going to attend a function there, this evening.
As the Minister parried direct reply to the protesting students’ query on the Government decision by only stating that UIET will remain there, the gherao continued amidst slogan shouting till the Police intervened and resorted to lathicharge, in which around eight protesters were injured. Click here to watch video
The injured were identified as Aryan Khajuria, Gorav Gumble, Piyush Khajuria, Muskan Anand, Liza Dogra, Akshat Baru, Vishal Pagotra and Sugam Andotra.
Even as Police managed to safely escort the Minister to venue of the programme, parents of the protesting students forced their entry into the main hall and disrupted the function after which Education Minister personally visited the injured students at Gandhi Nagar Hospital. The Minister assured the students that UIET will function and the Government has provided Rs 2.5 crores as initial grant-aid to the Jammu University for the purpose.
Even as he did not clarify the student about the Government decision of taking over management control of the existing UIET, a constituent of Jammu University, the Education Minister told the Excelsior that there was no possibility of reviewing the Cabinet decision No.170/11/2017 dated 03/10/2017.
“At any cost, Government will not give up its control on the twin Engineering Colleges, established at Janglote campus in Kathua and Safapora in Ganderbal, Kashmir, under RUSA,” he maintained and claimed that Jammu University as well as Kashmir University were only facilitators to temporarily start the institutions.
However, he added, the Government has decided to allow the Jammu University start its own Engineering College under UIET or any other name and for this purpose, the varsity has been provided Rs 2.5 crores as initial grant-in aid.
On the other hand, sources in Jammu University said that with Rs 2.5 crore grant-in aid, it was not possible to run an Engineering Institute and hence the offer was just a ploy by the State Government to fizzle out the agitation against attack on the university autonomy.
“This is not the question of only UIET or future of some students but also autonomy of Jammu University, which is being eroded by the State Government by annexing its constituent college,” said Deepak Gupta, State Secretary of ABVP, which has been spearheading the agitation over UIET.
It may be recalled that JU vide letter ref No HE/Coll/Engg/Uni/116/2016 dated 12-05-2017 was directed by the State Higher Education Department to run the college of Engineering & Technology from the academic session 2017-18 under the centrally sponsored Rashtriya Uchchattar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) Scheme as constituent college of the University for addressing the critical gaps in the spatial distribution of Higher Educational Institutions across the State. A subsequent communication as Reminder-I was received by the office of the Vice-Chancellor JU vide letter no HE-Coll/Engg/Uni/116/2016 dated: 29-05-2017 asking the university to intimate the action taken in the matter at the earliest. It was followed by a meeting convened by the Commissioner/ Secretary Higher Education Department on 16th June 2017 in his office at Civil Secretariat to review the follow up action taken by the JU and University of Kashmir regarding start of the admission process in RUSA Engineering Colleges from the session 2017-18.
Meanwhile, the University also received a letter from the Governor’s Secretariat, Srinagar, vide letter no GS-15(Estab. Govt Coll) KU/2017/2851 dated 14th June 2017 asking the University to take timely action regarding the establishment of Government College of Engineering & Technology at Janglote, Kathua, therein, fulfilling the mandate regarding its recognition and admission to the privileges of the constituent college by the University Syndicate in terms of Section 2 (d), 24(1) (f) of the Kashmir and Jammu Universities Act 1969 and Chapter IV of the statues of the Act. It was further desired that the University Council be informed about the establishment of the college as Constituent College.
In compliance to these letters /orders, JU took immediate steps to start the Bachelor of Engineering (B Tech) programme from the academic session 2017-18. The university, in view of the situation that the said building for running the engineering programme at Kathua was under construction and might take more time, decided to start with two courses in Engineering i.e. Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) & Civil Engineering (CE) with an intake of 60 in each stream.
In response to the admission notification, 47 students in the Civil Engineering and 17 students in the Computer Science and Engineering took admission. The admission process was completed by 15th of August 2017 as per the norms of the University, the class work for the first semester of B Tech. Programme commenced from 11th Sept. 2017. The classwork was held in the Faculty House, University of Jammu (Main Campus) on temporary basis for the intervening period till the building at Janglote (Kathua) is completed and handed over to the University by the Government for use.
Meanwhile, JU vide letter no. UIET/JU/2017/09 dated 21-06-2017 approached the Minister for Higher Education Department for grant in aid for running the courses in the established engineering institute as per the order of the Higher Education Department. The response to this letter was received in the university from Joint Director, Planning Higher Education Department, Govt of Jammu & Kashmir, vide ref. No. HE/Plan/041/2015-PF dated 03/08/2017 addressed to the Registrar, JU, wherein it was conveyed that the college of Engineering & Technology, Kathua sanctioned under RUSA has been made constituent college of the University of Jammu and the University of Jammu is required to utilize funds from its own resources for meeting the expanses in making the college functional. However, as per the letter, the Higher Education Department envisaged to enhance the grant in aid allocation to JU under revised budget 2017-18 subject to submission of revised budget by the University.
Meanwhile, the Higher Education Department issued subsequent Government order no. 687-HE of 2017 dated 12/12/2017 citing the Cabinet decision No.170/11/2017 dated 03/10/2017 and Govt order no 589-HE of 2017 dated 10/10/2017 granting approval for the creation of Government College of Engineering & Technology and creation of 68 posts for the Engineering & Technology College at Janglote, Kathua superseding its earlier order, ref. No. HE/Coll/Engg/Uni/116/2016 dated 12-05-2017. The said order of the Higher Education Department does not mention the future course of action with regard to the admitted students of B Tech. programme in the University institute in the light of the order which stands superseded as per the fresh order. The matter was deliberated in the 83rd meeting of the University Council dated 24th October 2017 at Raj Bhawan Srinagar, while discussing the action taken report on the introductory remarks and the resolutions passed in the 82nd meeting of the University Council held on 22- 04-2017.
Regarding the issue of UIET Janglote, Kathua, constituent college of JU, the Governor, who was chairing the Council meeting as the Chancellor, purportedly noted that he would discuss and settle this matter with the Minister of Education. Pursuant to the University Council resolution, the University approached the Chancellor as well as various other concerned quarters of the State Government for early redressal of the issue, in the larger interests of the students.
Meanwhile, the admitted students of UIET went on agitation from February 8, 2018 boycotting their class work and demanding continuation of UIET in the University of Jammu. Some of these students were earlier admitted to other Engineering Colleges and even GCET Jammu and they had left those institutions due to the reputation of JU being A+ University of the country and the UIET being a University institute would fetch them better avenues in their future carrier.
On the other hand, in further, pursuance to the Cabinet decision, No. 170/11/2017, the Higher Education Department also issued an order no: HE-Coll/Estb-119/Eng/2018 dated 12.02.2018 regarding shifting of the students admitted in UIET to Government College of Engineering and Technology, Janglote.
Consequently, the students who were already agitating, started staging dharna and chain hunger strike in front of the JU Vice-Chancellor’s Secretariat at the University since February 16, under the banner of ABVP.
Only two days, the protesting students had gheraoed the MoS Education Priya Sethi when she visited Jammu University and today, the same was repeated with the Education Minister Altaf Bukhari.
Meanwhile, former Ministers Raman Bhalla and Harshdev Singh visited the ABVP activists and students, who were injured in Police lathicharge during gherao of the Education Minister. They strongly condemned the police lathicharge on the students, who were protesting for their genuine right.
Raman Bhalla alleged that the PDP-BJP Government was trying to suppress the voice of students and eroding the autonomy of Jammu University. He warned that people would teach BJP a lesson for its anti-Jammu attitude.
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