Delhi University teachers question administration for collecting personal data of professors
Oct 23, 2023
By Vishu Adhana
New Delhi (India), October 23 : Delhi University Teachers have raised objections over the university collecting data of assistant professors for 2024 election duty, saying any attempt to involve teachers in polls will not be in the interest of students.
11 members of Delhi University's Executive Council, Academic Council, and DUTA Executive wrote to DU Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh and highlighted that the way data has been asked - has led to a wider apprehension about being used for election duty.
There was no immediate response from the Delhi University administration.
"...Data like Voter-ID number, assembly constituency, pregnancy of female teachers, etc. is being asked from assistant professors at all levels. Never in the past was such a type of data like the constituency of husband and wife asked from the university teachers. Why is such data being asked from assistant professors only?" the letter mentioned.
In the letter dated October 11, the teachers also mentioned that a Nodal Officer has been appointed for such data collection. Is this nodal officer going to facilitate coordination with the other agencies?
"This is in violation of service conditions approved by the UGC and which were published in the Gazette of India. The University of Delhi also accepted that University of Delhi teachers were never ever involved in election-related duties as the University of Delhi is an autonomous institution and does not come under the purview of the state government," the letter read.
The teachers asked the vice chancellor to direct the concerned office of the university to clarify why this information was being collected.
The letter was written by JL Gupta Member Finance Committee; Seema Das Member, Executive Council; Rajpal Singh Pawar Member, Executive Council; Mamta Chaudhary Member, AC; Alok Ranjan Pandey, Member AC; Ramkishore Yadav Member AC; Sunil Kumar Member AC; CM Negi Member AC; Deonanandan Kumar Member DUTA Executive; Anand Prakash Member DUTA Executive; and Vimlendu Tirthankar Member DUTA Executive.
"Any attempt to involve university teachers in election-related duties is not in the interest of students", the letter mentioned.
