New Delhi: A delegation of SC and ST faculty members of JNU Saturday accused the administration under Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar of discrimination against teachers and students from these communities and requested Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan to take up the matter with the government.
After meeting the faculty members, Paswan said the allegations levelled by the delegation were serious and should be looked into.
After tweeting the concerns of the delegation and urging the government to pay attention to them, Paswan later said that HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhrial Nishank spoke to him and said there was no reduction in seats and the fee hike was also reversed.
“The government is committed to furthering the interests of the scheduled castes and tribes,” Paswan said, adding that he will take up these issues next week with the HRD minister on his return to the national capital from Bihar.
The delegation members told Paswan that the recent hike in fee and reduction in seats have affected these underprivileged communities the most and that Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) teachers were not getting due promotions despite fulfilling the criteria.
Teaching posts reserved from these communities have been left vacant even though able candidates are available, Paswan said quoting them.
“The delegation’s charges are serious. Attention will have to be paid to them,” he said.
In its memorandum, the delegation said SC and ST members of teaching and non-teaching staff and students have been facing discrimination from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration headed Kumar.
The university has seen protests by its students’ union against fee hike.
PTI
