Far Western University Executives Step Down
Seven officials of newly established Far Western University have jointly resigned from their post. The University executives including Vice-Chancellor Prof. Jayraj Awasthi, Spokesperson and Registrar Prof. Hemraj Pant and Exam Comptroller Kumar Thapa resigned from their desk on 12th February. Along with them, the Deans of faculties at the University, Bharati Joshi, Nar Dutta Awasthi, Tekraj Pant and Bhawani Chand Thakuri have also resigned from their positions. The officials allude to insecurity and opposed working milieu at the University. The University was established in 2010 and is situated in Mahendranagar of Kanchanpur.
In the resignation letter addressed to the Chancellor, they have stated, “We have resigned en masse after the work environment was destroyed at the university with frequent strikes and padlocking.” VC Awasthi said that the student unions at the University had been deterring the university administration with untidy political quandaries. Feeling pity upon the students, Prof. Awasthi also said that the officials can’t run the university administration under impermissible pressure from the student unions. Formerly, Prof. Awasthi was a distinguished faculty at Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur.
The situation became harsh after the student wings of CPN-UML, UCPN (M) and CPN-M door-locked the University and conglomerate Siddhanath Multiple Campus from 6th February. They even prohibited the Campus Chief of Siddhanath Multiple Campus, Dr. Mukunda Kalauni from entering his office. The three student unions padlocked the university demanding resignation from Dr. Kalauni. The students unions are said to be pressurizing for irregular admission at the university on their recommendation. But, the student unions defended the reproach over them saying that the university administration has been discerning among its affiliate campuses.
On the other side, Nepal Student Union has been asking for conducting dialogue and making a decision upon the issue through discussions. The Union said that the university has been unable to publish the entrance results of engineering faculty. They also said that the university hasn’t decided yet upon the call tender for construction of the university buildings and applications asked for vacant posts at the university.
Reporting over the issue, the University Administrative Officer Santosh Bista said, “The regular classes, new admission in civil engineering and mapping of the physical infrastructure have been affected after the senior officials resigned en masse. Due to this, examinations of the second semester of the Bachelor’s Level are at a situation of postponement. And now, it has become difficult to run the day-to-day works of the University.”
As for now, the three student unions have unlocked the deadbolt at the university and affiliate campus. After the en mass resignation from the university officials, the student unions have settled to run regular classes at the university.