Guv: Prepare road map for improving univs

Patna: The reported tussle between the education department and the chancellor’s secretariat has finally seemed to subdue as the governor-cum-chancellor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Wednesday successfully convened a meeting with education department’s additional chief secretary among other officials at the Raj Bhavan.
Apart from the additional chief secretary S Siddharth, the education minister Sunil Kumar, the vice-chancellors of all the state universities and other officials attended the meeting.
Earlier, the former additional chief secretary KK Pathak (presently on leave) did not attend any meeting at the Raj Bhawan.
On Wednesday, Arlekar asked the vice-chancellors to prepare academic road maps for their universities with a focus on their qualitative improvement and make all efforts for their effective implementation.
“The VCs should promote academics and research to develop their universities into ‘centres of excellence’,” he said.
Emphasizing the need to grant autonomy to the universities in the light of Supreme Court decisions in different cases under the provisions of the university Acts, the governor said that all the institutions should be allowed to serve as such centres of education that might ensure all-round development of the society.
“Making sufficient funds available to the universities is the sole responsibility of the education department,” Arlekar added.
A new initiative should be taken to create a better academic environment in the state, he said, adding, “A two-day meeting of all the vice-chancellors on leadership development programme would be convened at Raj Bhawan in July,” he said.
Speaking at the meeting, education minister Sunil Kumar said that the vice-chancellors should prepare a work plan owing to the all-round improvement of students. “They should work hard for the betterment of students’ careers and restoration of the old glory of the state. Achieving the target becomes easier if one works with dedication, sincerity and discipline,” he added.
The vice-chancellors pleaded for strengthening the infrastructural facilities, arrangement of internal auditing, the appointment of staff against vacant posts, timely payment of salary and pension, constitution of an IT cell, and development of centres of excellence in the universities.
Meanwhile, in another meeting of the VCs held at the education department on Wednesday, it was decided that the government would release salary grants for four months (March to June) to the universities in a week. It was further decided to appoint a nodal officer in each university to facilitate better coordination between the university and the department.
The universities were told to surrender their unutilized grants to the government so that the budgeted grants for the current financial year could be sanctioned to the universities.