An inquiry is underway at Kashmir University (KU) to probe the allegations levelled by the contractual lecturers of Urdu department against the former Head of the Department (HoD).
The contractual lecturers have alleged that they were forced by the former HoD of Urdu department to handover amount of the salary credited into their bank accounts some two years ago.
The contractual lecturers had also submitted a compliant to the then Dean Academic Affairs of KU demanding action against the head of the department.
“We were four contractual lecturers recruited in Urdu department in 2017. Besides getting our normal wages, we were entitled for bonus for talking classes of supplementary batch of students in evening shift,” said Nusrat Ameen, one of the contractual lecturers.
“None of us were aware about getting extra wages for taking classes of students enrolled in supplementary batch. In March 2018, an amount of Rs 1.35 lakhs was credited in each of our accounts by the then HoD Urdu department. But she told us that she had credited amounts in our account for some income tax issues and asked us to handover the cash to her. We handed over the amount to her. But after sometime it was revealed that amount was actually the remuneration meant for us for delivering lectures in supplementary batch during 2017 session,” she said.
In wake of this, one of the lecturers had complained to Dean Academic Affairs of the University and demanded probe into the alleged bungling.
The varsity administration ordered for an inquiry into the matter and a committee was constituted for probing the allegations levelled by the contractual lecturers against the then head of the Urdu department.
“The inquiry committee could not establish anything as the amount was credited into the respective bank accounts of the contractual lecturers. The complainants had claimed that they handed over the money to HoD but there was no witness to it,” a top official in the KU said, adding that the committee could not establish whether the cash had changed the hands or not.
The official said the previous committee recommended further investigations into the case as they could not establish whether the money was handed over to HoD or not.
“It was just an allegation wherein one party complained that they handed over the money, but the accused party out rightly refused to have taken any cash,” the official said.
During the course of time, the varsity administration on the recommendations of the inquiry committee removed the accused HoD from the position in order to complete the further investigations into the matter.
“The University could take only this logical decision to remove her (HoD) from the chair till the new investigations get completed,” he said, adding that the new inquiry ordered into the matter is underway.
Registrar KU, Dr. Nisar Ahmad Mir was not available for his comments.