BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Monday overturned the decision of Governor and Chancellor Prof Ganeshi Lal by withdrawing the directives issued by him on streamlining self-financing courses (SFCs) run by universities and announcing that they will continue without any changes as before.
This is for the first time that the Higher Education (HE) department has defied a decision taken by the Chancellor’s office on any matter pertaining to the universities. The Chancellor had expressed concern over the mismanagement of the SFCs in government universities last week and asked them to take corrective measures.
The issue has raised eyebrows, as the government seems to have directly taken on the Governor, which was unknown in the State till now. Unlike several other states, relation between the Governor and government in Odisha has been mostly cordial. Prof Lal has been non-interfering in the State government’s functioning and decisions, and also highly appreciative of its achievements.
The Governor as Chancellor of universities had recently expressed displeasure over the manner in which SFCs are run on PPP mode by government universities and directed the institutions to refrain from launching any such courses from the ensuing academic year 2022-23. On April 12, Secretary to the Chancellor Saswat Mishra had informed the universities about the measures to be taken by them which include capping of students strength in all such courses, both direct and PPP mode, at 20 per cent (pc) of the total strength of all regular courses.
The HE department had taken steps for implementation of the Chancellor’s directive. It assigned 13 officers (one each for 13 universities) for the task of streamlining SFCs on April 16. However, all of a sudden for reasons unknown, the department has refused to implement the directions. Along with the decision not to streamline the SFCs, deployment of the officers has also been withdrawn.
Govt rejects Guv’s direction on SFCs
Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo said that the letter was sent to the universities by the Principal Secretary to the Chancellor and not by the department. “The courses will continue to be run as it is. No such decision (regulating SFCs) has been taken by the government,” he added.
The issue has now thrown up a question whether a decision taken by the Chancellor can be withdrawn by the HE department. When contacted Law Minister Pratap Jena said that as he does not have details about the issue, he cannot comment. But senior Congress leader and former Law minister Narasingha Mishra said, according to him the Chancellor’s decision cannot be withdrawn by the department.