ENTERING INTO A NEW ERA BY MADHYA PRADESH UNIVERSITIES

  It is a matter of great pleasure that 24th general body meeting  of  IAAVP ( Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology ) ,held at Kerala Veterinary College , Mannuthy  on  7^th Feb 2014 has approved our  request and IAAVP executive council’s decision as communicated  by its secretary Professor SK Gupta, Hisar  to me on  26th March 2014 . Accordingly, it is resolved vide its Agenda no. 8 that hence forth the keynote address, delivered by an eminent Parasitologist , in the annual national conference of IAAVP will be termed as  DR SC DUTT MEMORIAL KEYNOTE ADDRESS/lecture . Obviously, this key note address will be available on the website of IAAVP, as and when it becomes operational though I will be glad to upload the same on my blog www. Indianparasitologists.blogspot.com  as soon as it becomes available . By this gesture, Dr SC Dutt will be remembered each year by the Parasitologists of the country and hopefully more and more young Parasitologists will read the book “Remembering DR SC Dutt :The Parasitologist “ to know more about this eminent scientist; perhaps, following lines of an anonymous poet are most suitable to late Professor SC Dutt   :

Where have they all gone, those simple men with great character,

those unsung heroes with fine minds, but little riches.

Alas, times have changed , there are many making loud noises,

some with much riches, but few with Sense and substance---Anon

Why we were compelled to write to IAAVP for shifting Dr SC Dutt memorial lectures from Jabalpur Veterinary College  to IAAVP ? Whether such step was smooth and commendable ? In fact , it was not . This DR SC Dutt memorial lectures were started by the Department of Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science and AH ,JNKVV, Jabalpur in 1996 ; and with all our efforts it can not be made an annual event . When a separate MP University of Veterinary sciences was established in the premises of Veterinary College ,Jabalpur in 2009, I  , in consultation with the present Professor and Head Parasitology DR Girdhar Das , submitted a proposal ,with great hope, to its Vice Chancellor Dr G P Mishra  to sanction funds for delivering these lectures every year and instead of an eminent Parasitologist any distinguished scientist may be invited to deliver DR SC Dutt memorial lecture where he can discuss not only Parasitology but any latest scientific matter . However, this proposal was not finalized and the last Dr SC Dutt memorial lecture was delivered  by Dr M Hafeez, former Vice Chancellor, Andhra Pradesh Veterinary University Tirupati  on 22nd Nov 2011- a gap of seven years from previous lecture ,delivered by Dr JR Rao, IVRI, Izatnagar in  2004 . Ironically, this lecture in 2011, like previous ones, was delivered not from university or college funds but from other funds . There were again problems in arranging the lectures in subsequent years.

This is a sad commentary on our universities. We fail to understand why these universities are not encouraging academic activities like delivering lectures by eminent scientists/professors/policy makers etc for the benefit of our students and faculty . This highlights how our universities are not ready to spare even a meager fund  for  such activities though posing their all efforts for advancement of academics.  
  

This no-concern for academic and research activities is more glaring in the state Agriculture university – Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya,(JNKVV) Jabalpur  which was established long back in 1964 and was  Asia’s biggest Agriculture University . Despite such distinction, this Agriculture university has no consistent policy for promoting academic activities and is notorious  to change its rules and regulations as per its conveniences ; and there is no one to look into the matter, genuinely . This university is not caring for its eminent scientists as may be clear by following simple example :

In its whole history of existence since 1964 till date , the only one national fellowship, a highly distinguished national award equivalent to professor’s post of Indian Council of Agriculture Research, New Delhi was awarded to the Associate Professor (who accepted the award ,after resigning Professor’s post from HAU, Hisar) of  the Department of Parasitology ,College of Veterinary Science and AH, Jabalpur in January,1995 for five years. For implementing the national fellowship , the Vice Chancellor, JNKVV and others , signed a MOU and the university has never raised any questions  on any clause of MOU during the tenure. However, at the time of retirement of the national fellow- ten years after implementation of the scheme ie 2005 , the university raised the questions  on pay fixation and national fellow has to take shelter of the high court. There again, JNKVV has not hesitated to submit contradictory documents in the writ petition and writ appeal , ignoring its own signed MOU , and there was no one who can question such activities of the university. This has resulted in no settlement of pay of the national fellow even when he has attained 70 years of age ; as of now , during national fellow period he was neither employee of JNKVV nor of ICAR –is it not ridiculous ?. Noticing the attitude of the university , no one has dared to apply to national fellowship or any such award thus depriving the university from finances , fame and big research achievements (though in the past, JNKVV has awarded two advance increments for best research papers or in-service gold medals ). How our universities are treating even its eminent scientists/professors  can be visualized from this example and also by visiting  universities websites (Aug 2013 post-websites of our premier institutes ) where there is no mention about outstanding research achievements, patents made or books published , awards won etc by its own scientists/teachers though you may surf all other nonsense on these websites .

In this gloomy  background , it is heartening to read a news in 28^th March,2014 news paper (Dainik Bhaskar)  that the M.P. Higher Education department has accepted UGC 2009 regulations and has directed all Madhya Pradesh universities to formulate research policies which can solve  regional problems (it is already inscribed in technical universities). They are also emphasizing to patent the innovations, awarding the outstanding works and even to make international collaboration with foreign universities. This state policy suggests as if MP universities are entering into a new era where a true research environment will be created and the faculty will be encouraged to undertake new innovations. However, present scenario of research environment and how eminent scientists are treated by the universities with no one to look after their genuine problems make us skeptic about the whole program –whether really a change will occur in the atmosphere of the university or it will remain a rhetoric, a foul cry, only time will tell .