Sharad addresses students at JNU
YADAV WAS INVITED BY UNITED OBC FORUM, A STUDENTS’ ORGANISATION, TO SPEAK ON THE RECENT UGC NOTIFICATION
Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav on Tuesday addressed Jawaharlal Nehru University students at the administrative block despite the university informing him that it will be violation of rules.
Yadav was invited by United OBC Forum, a students’ organisation, to speak on the recent UGC notification, which many students and teachers claim is leading to seat cut in research courses in the university.
“The registrar sent me a letter today informing about a court order. I am addressing students away from the 100 metre limit. This place is for arguments. Democracy works with arguments but they want to stop this,” Yadav said. He encouraged students to continue with their struggle against seat cut and assured support to them.
“On the issue of seats, all students will have to fight together. You should struggle for it and we will raise the issue in Parliament,” he said.
As per the notification, there is a cap on the number of students a professor, associate and assistant professor can mentor. This year, JNU has only 200 seats for MPhil and Phd courses as against over 1,000 seats last year.
Students are opposing the move to make viva the only criterion for admission to research courses as the entrance has been made only a qualifying test.
Yadav spoke against the move and said, “The UGC has made viva 100% but actually it should be 0. It should be abolished.”
JNU registrar Pramod Kumar on Tuesday issued a letter, saying the talk organized by the students is in violation of a recent high court order.
“The administration advises all stakeholders of JNU to refrain from organizing any event that is in violation of rules, regulations, and relevant court orders. Disciplinary action will be taken as per university rules against the violators In this connection, the invited speaker of today’s event has been informed and apprised of the situation,” he said.
“Every year, we launch a special drive to trace missing children. We put the children aged below seven years on a higher priority since they cannot identify the address or parents. Children above that age can tell others about the family and can be reunited,” Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma said.
“Our recovery rate is higher if the children are younger but it decreases with age as many of them go out of Delhi on their own and do not want to return. We do make efforts to trace them and check from time to time whether any organised gang is operating in Delhi,” Verma added.
However, the data shows, the number of cases of human trafficking have gone down in the past three years but the conviction in child labour cases is also very less.
Police said that they have special units in every district and have anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) under the crime branch.
The number of cases registered under human trafficking has gone down from 200 in 2014 to 177 in 2015 and then 71 in 2016. In case of child labour, total 211 inspections have been carried out in Delhi and only 312 prosecutions launched and only 94 could be convicted.
“Our team keeps a constant watch on red light areas and we focus a lot on public awareness. In this and child labour cases, we get a lot of help from NGOs,” Verma added.