[Amid the cacophonous clamour of the ruling clique as regards honouring Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, to right a historical wrong - and nothing less (by way of issuing a commemorative coin and all that); comes this report of systematically subverting Dr. Ambedkar's ideals and projects of doing away with social discrimination via deepening of knowledge and heightening of awareness as regards this evil.]
https://thewire.in/117004/ugc-funding-social-discrimination/ UGC Cuts Funding For Social Discrimination Research Centres Across the Country BY THE WIRE STAFF ON 17/03/2017 Several universities were running such UGC-funded research centres that were set up under the 11th five-year plan and renewed under the 12th plan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks past an image of Ambedkar. Credit: PTI New Delhi: Thursday (March 16) brought yet another instance of how the Narendra Modi government’s words and actions move in two different directions. While research centres that were set up under the 11th five-year plan (2007-2012) and then renewed in the 12th plan. While a similar renewal was expected under the 13th plan, the UGC has sent circulars to some of the universities that house such centres saying that their plan funding end on March 31. “I am directed to inform you that UGC will not provide financial support to the centre after the end of XIIth Plan as per the order received from MHRD (ministry of human resource development) … Further, the UGC will not be liable to the scheme of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy after the completion of XIIth Plan in any matter of functioning of the Centre; No communication whatsoever will be entertained or solicited by the UGC,” says the order quoted by the Telegraph, issued by UGC undersecretary Sushma Rathore. UGC Notification by The Wire on Scribd [Facsimile] According to ministry and UGC sources who spoke to the Telegraph, this order has been sent to all those centres that have not been upgraded to a full-fledged department by the universities. “It’s ironic that these centres, which research Dalits, B.R. Ambedkar’s philosophy, social exclusion and inclusive policies like reservation, are being closed down when the University Grants Commission (the higher education regulator) is funding courses on Vedic studies,” N. Sukumar, Ambedkar scholar and teacher of political science at Delhi University, told the newspaper. One such centre that is being closed is the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion at Jawaharlal Nehru University. According to teachers at JNU, MPhil and PhD students at the centre will be transferred to other departments while faculty members are likely to lose their jobs. There are several other centres, such as over a hundred women’s studies centres across the country, that have run on plan-to-plan budgeting for decades. While MHRD spokesperson Ghanshyam Goel did not respond to the Telegraph‘s request for comment, the UGC chairman gave the paper an evasive response saying that non-plan budget for these centres had not been cut. Most of these centres receive hardly any non-plan revenue, according to the Telegraph. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
