Shillong: The North-Eastern Hill University Teachers Association is pushing back against the Hynniewtrep Youths Council. The student group wants Vice-Chancellor in-charge Saroj Kanta Barik to resign. NEHUTA president Lakhon Kma dismissed the demand as unfounded and irrational.
Stakeholders including NEHUTA, the NEHU Non-Teaching Staff Association, and the students union asked senior professor R. Khongsdier to lead the school. He refused three times. Khongsdier stated he would only take the job if the Ministry ordered him to do so. Documentation of these requests went to the Ministry of Education and the President of India.
Prof. Barik accepted the responsibility when the school faced a leadership crisis. Kma defended the appointment as fully compliant with university statutes. "Three times the stakeholders approached the senior-most professor to take charge during a crisis, and three times he declined," Kma said.
The Ministry of Education explicitly identified Barik as the second senior-most professor. Kma noted that the rule requiring a handover to the senior-most professor only applies if a new appointment remains unfilled at term-end. Since the President of India approved this as a fresh appointment, the union sees no violation. Various groups including the KSU NEHU unit support the current administration. Kma wants the institution to move past years of instability and return to normal operations.
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