RONO HILLS, Sep 1: Following the 12-hour ultimatum served by the Rajiv Gandhi University Students’ Union (RGUSU) on 31 August, the university on Tuesday issued a response to the eight demands of the union.
The RGU authority said that it took the RGUSU’s appeal into consideration and immediately constituted an interim committee to look into the matter.
“Based on findings of the committee, a full-fledged four-member committee was constituted to examine the demands. The committee was chaired by Social Sciences Dean Prof Tana Showren and convened by Students’ Welfare Dean Prof Sumpam Tangjang,” it said.
Rajiv Gandhi University Teachers’ Association president Prof Jumyir Basar and College Development Council Director Prof Nabam Nakha Hina were members of the committee.
The committee held a meeting on 1 September and submitted an eight-point recommendation to the RGU administration.
“The admission fees, accepted by considering the socioeconomic conditions prevalent in the state and implemented administratively as per the university rules and reflected in the prospectus (2019-2020), were subsumed as internally generated university revenue to match with pro-rata fund given to the university by the UGC. Thus, the issue of fee hike is presumptive. And hence, the demand of the RGUSU stands redundant,” it said.
RGU also said that “considering the prevalent Covid-19 pandemic and poor network connectivity issues due to natural calamities and lockdown(s) across the state in particular and the region as a whole, the university authority has extended the last date of readmission till 7 September, 2020.”
It said appropriate action has been initiated to refund the extra fees paid by some of the students during the 2019 semester examination, which has been delayed as the process involves the respective colleges and departments of the university.
“The communication bottleneck adds to its further delay during Covid-19 pandemic. It may be further added here that this refund is institutional specific,” RGU said.
Regarding the refund of extra charges deducted during the filling up of online examination form in 2020, the university said that “the deductions were due to connectivity issues, or due to errors made by the students in filling up of their forms.”
“The university understands the economic constraints of its students and hence has accepted all applications and more than 700 refunds have been initiated till 31 August. The university also provided a dedicated helpline to facilitate the same,” it said.
On the demand for supplementary examination, the university said it was adopted by the RGU during the annual system and has been discontinued since the implementation of semester system.
“The same was abolished with the consent of the principals of all the affiliated colleges and due approval of the academic council and executive council,” it said.
RGU Vice Chancellor Prof Saket Kushwaha said that “the university is working as per the written and approved acts, statute, ordinances and directives of statutory regulating authorities that define appropriate appellate body to look after the grievances of the students.
“I further appeal to all our students to devote their time for preparation of forthcoming examinations and I wish them for their upcoming examinations and all their future endeavors,” Prof Kushwaha said.
