Dr Tariq Islam, Reader in Philosophy Department of AMU, who is also the General Secretary of RTI Group (www.rtigroup.org) has been charged with "gross misconduct", and directed not to leave the city without obtaining permission of the Vice-Chancellor Prof P K Abdul Azis.
The suspension notice issued yesterday states that "disciplinary proceedings, pending inquiry are being initiated with immediate effect."
Interestingly, Dr Islam was not served any show cause notice before suspension.
Since the enactment of the RTI Act in 2005, Dr Islam has been leading a crusade against nepotism at various levels in AMU and other central universities. It is being said that information obtained under RTI has played a critical role in exposing the alleged irregularities, which reportedly played an important role in providing "incriminating evidence" against some of the top university officials.
It should be kept in mind that during the last one year, AMU, headed by Prof P K Azis has been mired in controversies leading to the setting up of Fact Finding Inquiry into the affairs at AMU. A leading daily reported that out of 121 pages that make up the representation submitted by eight (08) members of the Executive Council of AMU (including the nominees of the Visitor herself, Rector (Governor of UP) and elected representatives from AMU Staff to the Hon'ble President of India in her capacity as Visitor of AMU, 119 pages have been obtained under RTI from Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD, University Grants Commission (UGC), AMU and Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) where Prof Azis previously served as VC and other offices of Government of Kerala.
On 24th August 2009, Dr Islam had filed RTI application with the MHRD inquiring details of personal assets of VCs of Central universities at the time of their joining office and as on date i.e. 24th Aug 2009. There are rumours that this may have further miffed the authorities at AMU who are facing the heat of Fact Finding Inquiry ordered by the Hon'ble President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil in her capacity as Visitor of AMU.
Earlier (January, 2009) Dr Islam, in his capacity as the General Secretary of RTI Group had submitted a memorandum to the Hon'ble President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil in her capacity as Visitor of AMU regarding the setting up of a Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Proceedings for the Vice Chancellors of Central Universities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Details of Memorandum are given below
----------------------------------------------------------------------
At a meeting of the RTI Group the members directed the General Secretary to address a memorandum to the President of India, in the capacity as Visitor of Central Universities, with a request to establish a Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Proceedings for the Vice Chancellors of Central Universities.
D. no. 257/RTIG/FAD January 20, 2009
MEMORANDUM
Hon'ble Smt. Pratibha Patil
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi 110001
Your Excellency,
The RTI Group is a voluntary organisation of committed citizens of India working towards making Central Universities, premier educational
institutes of our Country, corruption free, efficient, accountable and transparent. Over the years, as also notified by the President of
India from time to time, the Vice Chancellors of Central Universities have in practice abandoned democratic institutions and corollary the
rule of law breeding corruption and inefficiency helped by the unaccountability implicit in the absence of rules enforcing transparency.
2. Among its other efforts the RTI Group filed an application under Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) seeking information on certain
illegal appointments of retired non-teaching staff by circumventing procedures at the Aligarh Muslim University. On the basis of the
information the Group appealed for instituting an Inquiry to fix responsibility for such blatant ......................
4. The Group filed an application under RTI with Aligarh Muslim University to provide a copy of the Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Proceedings for the Vice Chancellor. The reply stated that the University Rules do not indicate these and for the desired information the applicant may approach the President in his capacity as the Visitor of the University, the appointing authority of the Vice Chancellor. The Group then filed RTI applications with the Banaras Hindu University, Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia, and Jawahar Lal Nehru University and received similar replies. An RTI application was also filed with the Secretariat of the President of India to which vide No. F.19-20/2006-Desk(U) dated December 12, 2007, Mr. RD Sahay, Director and CPIO, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, replied:
"…the Act/Statutes neither provide the code of conduct of the Vice Chancellor nor lay down the procedure for conducting disciplinary proceedings for committing financial/administrative irregularities, including violation of explicit University rules etc…"
In case you are interested in reading more on the issue, please visit http://rtigroupaligarh.blogspot.com/ for complete Memorandum.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
In case anyone wishes to contact Dr Tariq Islam, General Secretary, RTI Group, (Reader, Department of Philosophy, Aligarh Muslim University) his phone no is 09997020528 and his email ID is given below: tariq43@gmail.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Various news items published in connection with the suspension of Dr Islam are given below:
No comments:
Post a Comment