UGC audit team witnesses ugly war of words at BBAU
LUCKNOW: An ugly war of words between the vice-chancellor, finance officer and registrar greeted the UGC’s central team that arrived on a three-day visit to the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University on Saturday for academic, research, financial and infrastructural audit. The spat was enough for the committee to believe that all was not well at the university.
Vice-chancellor RC Sobti and finance officer Rama Shankar accused registrar Sunita Chandra of sitting over files and noncooperation in taking the university forward, said sources. On the other hand, Chandra refuted the allegations, saying that university officials were against her because she had been opposing many “wrong-doings by the V-C and the finance officer.”
The committee was put off by the verbal duel between the three ‘power centres’ of the university. The committee noted some of the points when top officials engaged in heated arguments with each other. The committee then decided to lend an ear to the students who spoke openly about the poor facilities made available to them. During the interactive session, they complained about the poor state of laboratories and how a number of courses were discontinued.
Dalit students also complained about the “injustice meted out to them by the university administration.” They alleged that teachers often passed casteist remarks and harassed them by awarding less marks because they were dalits. One of the students said a dalit student was denied admission on the grounds of indiscipline despite topping the entrance test.
At 2:30 pm, the team visited the hostel where students showed them the poor condition of their washrooms and living rooms. The hostel inmates informed the team that the water tank in the hostel was never cleaned and they had to drink dirty water.
The girls complained about poor quality food served to them at the hostel mess.
“We explained how sub-standard food is served to inmates. We have registered protests with vice-chancellor RC Sobti in this regard, but he never took note of our complaints. The team was patient enough to listen to our woes,” said one of the students.
The audit team’s visit assumes significance in the light of the fact that a BBAU teacher and his associate staff were recently arrested by the anti-corruption wing of the CBI for taking bribe. The faculty expressed themselves freely on issues pertaining to the functioning of BBAU, including the positives and deficiencies.
The committee would also scrutinise relevant documents during their stay at the university.