Guwahati varsity V-C quits over ‘apathy’

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Guwahati, May 11: Guwahati University vice-chancellor Amarjyoti Choudhury resigned in a move that has shocked intellectuals and students here.

Prof. Choudhury cited the "indifferent" attitude of the Assam government in running the premier institution as the prime reason for his resignation.

The president of the Guwahati University Teachers’ Association, Mr N.R. Das, told reporters: "The government’s attitude towards the functioning of the university forced Prof. Choudhury to relinquish office. We are deeply hurt although we are with him as he did not succumb to the government’s nasty politics."

In a similar situation, Prof. Choudhury had tendered his resignation from the post of the vice-chancellor on September 26, 2007. After his resignation, he told mediapersons that his tenure as vice-chancellor had been a "torture" for him. But following pressure from the university community and the people of the state, he later withdrew his resignation.

On his resignation this time, Prof. Choudhury said that he could not compromise on the issue of raising the tuition fees of the students to run this state university as desired by the government.

"I cannot allow rise in the tuition fees beyond a certain limit. Besides, I don’t want the university to suffer for me," he said.

Elaborating, he said, "A significant potion of the students of this university is from the lower middle-class background. Therefore, we requested the government to bear 100 per cent of the salary component of the university, which stands close to Rs 42 crores annually. But the government is providing an annual grant-in-aid of Rs 26 crores to the university and has asked us to raise the fees of the students to make it a self-financing institution," said Prof. Choudhury.

Justifying the request of the university to the government to bear cent per cent of the salary component, Prof. Choudhury said that the Central government used to bear the entire salary expenditure of the Central universities.

Prof. Choudhury tendered his resignation on Saturday saying the government paid no heed to various demands for the smooth functioning of the university. "There are several burning issues, including early release of 10 per cent arrears dues to teachers and employees, enhancement of retirement age of teachers and creation of a corpus for pensioners, which need to be addressed immediately." Prof. Choudhury also met Assam governor Lt. Gen. Ajay Singh (Retd) on Sunday.

Raj Bhavan sources said that the governor would take a final decision on Prof. Choudhury’s resignation after Tuesday.