Hindu principal says sorry for irregularities in admission

Acknowledging irregularities in this year’s admission under the extra- curricular activities (ECA) quota, the principal of Hindu College and four faculty members apologised to all teachers.

At a staff council meeting convened on Friday, principal V. K. Srivastava admitted that rules had been flouted. He said more students were admitted under the ECA quota than permitted in the BA programme, political science and commerce in the current academic year.

The unconditional verbal apology is a first in the college’s history, teachers said.

A senior teacher who attended the meeting said: “The three teachers who blew the whistle on the scandal along with the staff council have now dropped their initial demand for an official inquiry following the apology.” Srivastava did not want to comment on the issue.

This year’s ECA admissions in Hindu College first came under the scanner in July when the teacher- in- charge of the three courses wrote to the principal highlighting the problem and seeking an explanation.

According to university rules, not more than five per cent of the seats in each course can be reserved for sports and ECA quota together.

The ECA committee of Hindu College — comprising four faculty members — however, admitted four students under the ECA category alone in the BA programme when the actual reservation for sports/ ECA group was three seats. Similarly, in the commerce stream, five students were taken in under the ECA category against the sports/ ECA reservation of three seats. In political science, there were three admissions under ECA alone whereas the sports/ ECA reservation for the course stood at two.

“More students have been admitted in the past. But it has always been done with the permission of the teacher-in-charge. No one was asked this year,” a member of the staff council said.

“Moreover, we suspected favouritism as most of these students did not deserve admission under the ECA quota as they were not talented enough and were either rejected or did not bother to turn up for the auditions of different societies when the academic session started,” the member added.

ECA admissions at Hindu College this year were carried out under extraordinary circumstances as all the members of the ECA committee were appointed by the principal instead of the staff council electing them.

“Since the teachers stayed away from the admission process to protest against the semester system, the principal was forced to appoint members. This was the excuse given,” a teacher said.