news details |
|
|
| Punishing Jammu Youth | | Has the UPA Government decided not to set up CU? | | Rustam
JAMMU, May 11: The people of Jammu in general and the youth in particular fought relentlessly for months and got the Central University. They had to fight because the Valley-centric State Government had transferred the sanctioned Central University from Jammu to Kashmir. The NC-Congress led coalition government had taken this anti-Jammu decision ignoring the suggestion of the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led government that Central University should be established at Jammu and Institute of Management Studies in Kashmir. Had not the people of Jammu fought relentlessly, the Central Government would not have decided to set up Central University in the Jammu province. Convinced that the controversy over the establishment of Central University could assume alarming proportions and create unrest in Jammu, the State Government also played some positive role and asked the Union Government to set up two Central Universities, one each in Jammu and Kashmir. The Union Government agreed and the people of Jammu province heaved a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, however, the Union Government has not appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University, which has not even taken off or become functional, thus causing great loss to the youth of Jammu province. It's not that the Union Government didn't want to appoint Vice-Chancellor. It did decide to appoint one, namely former Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University Amitabh Mattoo. However, the people of this province opposed the official move to impose Mattoo on the Central University. They opposed the Mattoo's candidature for several reasons. One of the reasons was that Matttoo was more a "politician" than an academician and that the University of Jammu had become a "den of anti-national activities" during his tenure. Another reason was that Mattoo was "inefficient" and that he spent most of his time in "politicking and promoting wrong and undesirable persons." Yet another reason was that Mattoo consistently "hobnobbed with those who stood for greater autonomy and self-rule for the state, as also for the addressing the concerns of Pakistan in the state." The people of Jammu, in short, opposed the candidature of Mattoo on the ground that his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the Central University "would further vitiate the atmosphere in the state and promote the cause of Kashmiri separatists and Pakistan."
Such was the nature of opposition in Jammu to the move of the Union Government to appoint Mattoo as Vice-Chancellor of the Central University that President of India Pratibha Patil refused to accept the recommendations of the selection committee. It happened last year. Ever since then, the people of Jammu have been urging the concerned authorities in New Delhi to appoint a Jammu-based academician as Vice-Chancellor, but with no result.
Has the Union Government in general and Human Resource and Minister of Telecommunication Kapil Sibal in particular decided to punish the Jammu youth by not establishing the sanctioned Central University in Jammu? If one goes by the attitude of certain elements in the Union Government, one can say with some degree of confidence that they are out to punish the Jammu youth whose only crime is that they opposed Mattoo and demanded a local vice-chancellor.
The only silver-lining is that the attitude of President Pratibha Patil appears quite positive and everyone here in Jammu hopes that she would intervene and do the needful. It is good that Panthers Party chairman Bhim Singh yesterday met her in New Delhi and urged her to appoint someone from Jammu as Vice-Chancellor of the Central University. Let's see what action she takes on the plea made by Bhim Singh. Her intervention has become all the more imperative considering the fact that the delay in the appointment of Vice-Chancellor has already spoiled almost two academic sessions. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
