Times of
India: Nagpur: Friday, September 28, 2018.
Responding
to charges of making an undemocratic decision in banning question hour, Nagpur
University (NU) vice-chancellor SP Kane on Thursday said his move is only
intended at optimum utilization of senate’s time and not muzzle freedom of
speech.
He
also suggested that members can avail Right to Information (RTI) Act to seek
information on administrative matters instead of waiting for the limited senate
meetings.
“I
am not a dictator. The window to hold administration accountable is still open.
If senate members want to raise genuine questions, they can still route them
through resolution. When the resolution is placed before the House, the VC can
ask question to the administration. The administration can ask the member about
the purpose of the resolution,” Kane said.
He
said that through the resolution, members can ask 30 questions instead of just
three as given in the now-scrapped statute.
The
VC is facing heat from all NU outfits following his decision to scrap the
provision of ‘interpellation’ the process of asking questions to administration
during the business of senate. Cutting across party lines, members from
Shikshan Manch, Secular Panel, Nagpur University Teachers’ Association, and
Young Teachers Association have called Kane a ‘dictator’ for the undemocratic
move earlier this month.
Challenging
the members, Kane said the directives are temporary arrangement and the members
need to convert them into statute. “My direction is valid only for six months.
Members have the freedom to rip my decision apart when they get the new statute
passed by the chancellor. The ball is in their court,” he said.
The
VC said the Management Council okayed setting up of the statute committee led
by RG Bhoyar on Thursday and it can start with this particular direction.
Kane
said that a lot of time was eaten up in question hour while serious issues took
a beating during the last senate meeting and therefore, he came up with the
solution.
Asked
what remedy members have to get information, Kane said he believed that RTI Act
was a good option. “The impugned statute of 2001 provided for question hour
because then there was no provision for members to get information about the
university administration. In 2005, the RTI was implemented and members can
avail the facility at any time of the year while the senate meets only for a
couple of times,” he said.