Delhi musings: AK’s neglect of ad-hoc DU teachers & PM’s photo-ops

Our man AK and his team have been shouting from roof-tops about their achievements in the education sector in Delhi. Now we hear that Deen Dayal Upadhyay College, DDUC, which is fully funded by the Delhi Government, has not paid its staff salaries.

This highlights the callous approach of the Delhi Government on ground while the Aam Aadmi Party’s propaganda machine has been claiming just the opposite.

It has been reported that now even the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) has taken up the matter with the Vice Chancellor. The Association has shown concern on how those 12 colleges of University of Delhi, funded by Delhi Government, are perpetually short of funds to pay salaries and other allowances to the teachers and employees due to non-release of funds by Delhi Government.

Wonder if the Aam Aadmi Party will like delegations from other states such as Punjab, Tamil Nadu or even Kerala to visit and interact with the staff of any of these 12 colleges? That would be fun, no?

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The DUTA, however, seems to be barking up the wrong tree. The University’s antipathy to the teaching fraternity is obvious from the circular it sent out where it wants to ensure that the teaching-learning workload of all permanent faculty members adheres to the provisions of the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.

The motive doesn’t seem to stem from a desire to improve standards but to rein in and control the requirements of ad-hoc or guest teachers – a breed of young teachers that takes care of a large teaching load of the University. It is a group of academics the authorities are blind and deaf to.

How can a University chase excellence when over 4,000 of its teachers are temporary and have a semester to semester existence?

But then with a nation deeply immersed in issues of places of worship – the issues of places of learning are an impingement on the prevailing sanity.

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Delhi saw the inauguration of the long awaited Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor last week. A 1.3-km-long tunnel and five underpasses that are a part of this project were inaugurated by Prime Minister.

The corridor will allow commuters travelling to India Gate and Lutyens Delhi from East Delhi or even from Noida and Ghaziabad to avoid those terrible traffic snarls at Bhairon Marg and Mathura Road.

It was claimed that the development work being undertaken by the Centre is changing the face of Delhi and modernising the national capital. While this kind of development work is welcome and appreciated but to call it a ‘gift’ was a little too pompous.

Delhi’s face has been changing ever since the 1982 Asian Games followed by the construction of a crazy number of flyovers, the conceptualisation and implementation of Delhi Metro, the Commonwealth Games etc. Every small development project need not be claimed as a showpiece of development for the hustings!

Interestingly, a clip that went viral was that of the honourable PM picking up trash from the tunnel that he inaugurated. This left the Dilliwalahs wondering as to what was the Public Works Department or the municipal authorities doing.

We, Dilliwalahs, have a tradition to clean up our premises before any auspicious occasion and inauguration or mahurats, as these are called, are extremely momentous especially when we have guests coming over.

And the occasion gets even bigger by humongous proportions when the guest is none other but the Prime Minister of this great nation. So how come there was waste and litter lying at the site of the inauguration?

Why wasn’t the place cleaned up especially when they knew that the chief guest is himself the main proponent of Swaach Bharat? Did any heads roll after the video went viral? Like one Delhi University product masquerading as a news anchor used to say – the nation wants to know!

(The author blogs at stateofdelhi.in. Views are personal)