DU innovation centre cleared after protests

NEW DELHI: At an emergency meeting on Saturday , the Executive Council (EC) of Delhi University (DU) gave its assent to the proposed Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) and its courses. This came after the Academic Council (AC) gave its nod to the proposal earlier in the evening in another emergency meeting. However, the meetings saw some stormy scenes when the elected members of the council termed the emergency meeting a “procedural violation” and called for a general meeting.Certain instances of plagiarism in the CIC draft were also brought to the fore in both the meetings.
DU had earlier announced that the CIC would offer BTech/ BS Innovation with mathematics and IT subjects from September 15. But all elected members of the AC resented the frequent calling of emergency meetings by the varsity administration.
“On DUTA directions, all elected members (22 in number) expressed dissent on the procedure of calling emergency meetings and for taking up the CIC issue in such a hurried manner. The members are in no way against the innovation centre, but the way it has been introduced without any clarity is wrong. Four members also expressed dissent on the courses to be offered by the CIC,” said AC member Sheo Dutt.
The AC meeting, which was scheduled to end at 1pm, stretched up to 5pm, as members brought to notice the issue of plagiarism in the draft circulated among the members.
“The vice-chancellor accepted responsibility for it and assured that the portions lifted from different sources will be removed and the draft reworked,” said AC member Tamal Dasgupta.
Another AC member, Rajesh Kumar Jha, said: “There was dissent on the centre or the courses; but all elected members are of the opinion that this should have been debated in a regular AC meeting.”
The EC meeting, which started around 5pm and stretched up to 9.30pm, saw members highlighting more instances of plagiarism in the drafts. At least 47 such instances, where paragraphs were lifted from various websites to prepare the CIC draft, were brought to notice.