Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today reviewed the roadmap for the revival of academic activities in the University of Jammu and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) post-lockdown, through video conferencing.
Sh. Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor (in person); Prof. Manoj Kumar Dhar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu; Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha, Vice-Chancellor, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) and Registrars of both the Universities attended the meeting through video conferencing.
The Lt Governor sought a detailed report from the VCs on the post-lockdown preparations of the Universities and stressed on comprehensive planning to restore academic activities, recruitments etc, besides laying down a robust mechanism for the conduct of examination in the Universities. Update infrastructure for online classes as Universities across the World are focusing on enhancing e-learning, he added.
The Lt Governor directed the VCs for regular fumigation and sanitization of the campus and hostels of the Universities before making them available for the students. He asked them to strictly adhere to social distancing norms in the Universities and adopt safety measures such as compulsory wearing of masks and conducting thermal scanning of regular commuters etc.
The Lt Governor asked the VC of Jammu University to submit a proposal of the infrastructural, staffing and other requirements of the off-site campuses. He further asked him for updation of recruitment rules and expediting the recruitment process, besides ensuring that the Adhocism is done away with. ‘As the Government has scrapped the interviews for Class-III level post, adopt the changes in recruitment rules accordingly’, he added.
The Vice Chancellors informed the Lt Governor that as per the directions of MHRD, academic session for old students would re-open from 1st August while for the new-admissions, classes would be started from 1st September.
On recruitments and vacancies, the Vice Chancellor of Jammu University informed that for non-teaching staff, the University has total sanctioned strength of 1828 out of which, 190 are lying vacant. These posts would be advertised soon. For teaching staff, the total sanctioned strength is 415 with 167 vacant posts, out of which, 145 posts have already been advertised but the process got delayed due to COVID crisis. The recruitment process would be completed as per the UGC guidelines, he added.