GUWAHATI, Nov 29 - The Assam College Teachers� Association (ACTA) today said though the Assam Government has declared zero-tolerance against corruption, its policy of zero tolerance has failed to stop corruption and irregularities in the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE).
�In violation of successive government orders, office memorandums, notifications, rules and acts, files regarding issues of college teachers are kept pending for months and years in the DHE office. Affected by delay, discrimination and corruption, when college teachers are forced to visit the DHE office for inquiring about their pending cases, they are treated with contempt and misbehaviour, even restricting their entry to important branches of this public office by responsible officers,� the ACTA said in a statement.
The ACTA further said the DHE has been protecting a convicted criminal who was suspended on March 4, 2013, for submitting fake certificates for the post of Principal, Dimoria College (a NAAC �A� grade college).
�Despite repeated requests made by the ACTA, the DHE illegally avoided mandatory departmental proceedings (DP) even after more than six years of the suspension. The DHE is yet to complete the DP even after a clear-cut order in case No. WP (C) 6932/2019, dated September 13, 2019, by the Gauhati High Court to do it within six months,� it added.
In a more alarming stand, the ACTA said the DHE has till date remained unmoved even after his recent conviction for forgery and cheating on November 5, 2019, under section 465/468/471 of IPC with a total punishment of four years of imprisonment in the CJM (Kamrup Metro) GR Case No. 1859/2013.
�It is done in total violation of Assam Government�s Manual of Departmental Proceedings in Para 3.11 which provides for dismissal of convicted government servants immediately on termination of the first trial by the lower court. The DHE has also disobeyed the government�s approval for transfer of Dr Biman Kumar Bhatta, Principal of erstwhile Hojai College to Dimoria College vide letter no. AHE.539/2019/13, dated September 17, 2019, for restoring normalcy in a leading institution of higher education like Dimoria College,� it said.
The ACTA has appealed to the Chief Minister and the Education Minister to do the needful urgently �by way of necessary remedial measures in the DHE office for doing justice to the college teachers, and dismissing the convicted criminal and restoring normalcy in Dimoria College by placing a permanent principal in that college.�
