The Hindu : New Delhi News : Varsity officers up in arms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Varsity officers up in arms

The Delhi University Officers’ Association (DUOA) is anguished over the manner in which the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, the University Grants Commission and the G. K. Chadha Pay Review Committee have treated the issue of pay revision for officers across the different universities in the country.

“Our concern is that while the officers of the university are governed by UGC regulations and their qualifications are at par with teachers, they have been deliberately kept out of the purview of the G. K. Chadha Committee. We have been covered by all the pay review committees in the past,” says M. A. Sikandar, Deputy Registrar of Delhi University and the DUOA secretary.

“The university officers have been enjoying parity and status in pay scales with the teachers and other academic officers since long as their qualifications are similar to that of the teachers and other officers. Keeping the university officers outside the purview of the pay review panel this time has created suspicion in the minds of the officials,” he adds.

The DUOA is planning to sit on dharna next month to press its demands.

Recognising its legacy as a centre of “renaissance” and “composite culture”, Delhi University’s Zakir Husain College -- which was earlier known as Delhi College -- has dedicated the year 2008-09 to the “Spirit of Communal Harmony and Accommodative Ethos”.

The college has decided to focus on several activities during this academic year under the broad rubric of this theme to sensitise young minds.

A function was organised at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi this past weekend in memory of one of the youngest martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle, Kartar Singh Sarabha. He was hanged on November 16, 1915, in Lahore at a very young age.

The event organised by the Freedom Movement Memorial Committee was inaugurated by eminent historian Prof. Bipan Chandra.

A monograph on Kartar Singh Sarabha in Punjabi language, authored by JNU Professor Chaman Lal and published by National Book Trust was released by eminent freedom fighter Shashi Bhushan and Communist Party of India leader A. B. Bardhan. Prof. Chaman Lal spoke on the role of the late freedom fighter in the activities of the Ghadar party.

The Premchand Archives and Literary Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi has been enriched with the valuable collection of Pandit Banarsidas Chaturvedi, a distinguished Hindi writer and a contemporary of Munshi Premchand.

The centre houses private papers and photographs of national leaders like Shaukat Ali, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar, Dr. M.A. Ansari and Dr. Zakir Husain.

The newly added collection comprises Banarsidas Chaturvedi’s published and unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, rare books, monographs and copies of some prestigious journals that he edited.

The collection also contains some rare and valuable photographs of freedom fighters and well-known literary people of that era.

The centre has appealed to the public to help in collecting and preserving valuable literary material of writers, poets, authors and journalists of yesteryears.

Parul Sharma

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section