Imphal, December 06 2009: The Manipur University, which has been upgraded into a Central University just four years back, continues to be the centre of attraction, but all for the wrong reasons.

Apart from untimely release of employees' salaries of Manipur University for two months - October and November, the delay in clearing bills on academic programmes submitted by the departments/schools has reportedly caused to suffer various academic programmes of Manipur University.

A highly placed source said, academic programmes submitted by respective departments and schools of the university were passed before the end of the previous financial year - March 31, 2009.The bills, however, are yet to be cleared till date.

A memorandum to this effect was issued by the Registrar of MU on October 30 last urging the finance section of the University to clear all bills related to the academic programmes within five days.

However, the same are yet to be materialised, it has been learnt.

Piqued over the messy state of affairs that has been gripping the MU for quite some time now, there has been feeling among the academic circle that the development of a university will be achieved only when there is no disturbance on academic programmes.

Meanwhile, in a rare case that could bombshell the sense of any average conscious person and more importantly which could set a bad precedence, the Head of the Hindi department of MU, Dr Devraj has been found to be absent till date (nearly a month now) after he took casual leave for three days on November 11.More surprising is that no action has been initiated against the professor by the University authority! .

The source disclosed that Prof Devraj went home on November 10 last after submitting an application for three days casual leave (November 11-13) to the Dean, School of Humanity.

He is said to leave without seeking station leaving permission from the University.

The "unauthorised continuous absence" of Prof Devraj, HOD, Hindi gains pertinence against the backdrop of a meeting proceedings circulated by the Deputy Registrar dated November 5, 2009 which directed all HODs to complete the present semester latest by first week of December.

According to the extract of proceedings of the meeting of the Deans, HODs, Hostels' wardens, Dean of Students' Welfare, President/General Secretary of MUTA and Pro-VC with the VC on November 5, the meeting decided to complete the present semester course latest by first week of December 2009 in order to maintain the UGC regulation and guidelines.

The meeting was also said to have decided that 'the HODs shall make necessary arrangement to meet the dateline fixed at the meeting including holding of extra classes'.

A highly reliable source said, the absence of the HOD without any official authorisation is a serious misconduct as an employee of a university under CCS Conduct Rules.

He is liable to be prosecuted under provisions of MU Act, 2005.The VC is authorised to cause the suspension of the employee under Statute 27 (I) of the MU Act, 2005, it added.

It may be mentioned that Manipur University has been upgraded into a Central University on October 13, 2005 .

The present Vice-Chancellor, Prof C Amuba has assumed the office of VC with effect from January 24, 2006 .

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