According to Ganesh Gurung, a member of the taskforce led by Education Minister Ganga Lal Tuladhar, the recommendations committee has already short-listed potential candidates for the posts of vice-chancellor (VC), registrar and rector at all three varsities including Far West University. [break]
“The taskforce will soon announce the names of office-bearers for all these universities,” he said. “The taskforce has already met twice to finalize the names.”
Gurung, who is ex-officio member of the taskforce as newly-appointed chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), says the allocation of a budget, as demanded by agitating students in the far west, is not an issue at all since the varsities governing body has sufficient money to distribute to all universities. “We have regularly allocated budgets for all three new universities for the last two years,” Gurung said. “We will allot a budget for this year also.”
According to Kedar Acharya, financial comptroller at UGC, around Rs 60 million will be allocated to Far West University this year. “The problem is not a lack of budget,” Acharya said, adding, “It is the lack of office-bearers. The newly-announced varsities are faceless. They have no executive committees. Nor do they have offices. Who are we supposed to give money to when there are no authorities?”
UGC had allocated a total of Rs 100 million for the three new universities -- Rs 60 million for Far West University and Rs 20 million each for Mid West University and Agriculture and Forestry University of Chitwan -- last fiscal year. However, this budget remained unused because of the lack of responsible authorities.
“We will hand over money to all new universities the moment they get their office-bearers,” Gurung said. “The agitating students should realize this.”
Parliament had approved bills for the three new varsities two years ago under pressure from locals. However, because of political instability, the government has not appointed any office-bearers, including VCs, for the universities.
Let alone the new universities, four of the six older universities are also currently without top leadership. At present, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara University, Mahendra Sanskrit University and Purbanchal University do not have most of their top office-bearers.
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