The poor attendance of government-appointed two MLAs and two MLCs from Pune district along with heads of Director of Technical Education (DTE) and the Director of Medical Education and Research (DMER) in the senate meetings of University of Pune (UoP) has been an issue for long. While second senate meeting for the current year is scheduled for Saturday,there are slim chances of these individuals attending the meeting. As per the Maharashtra Universities Act,1994,two members of the Legislative Assembly and two of the Legislative Council are appointed to state universities. In case of UoP,Congress MLA Sangram Thopate,NCP MLA Vilas Lande,Congress MLC Mohan Joshi and NCP MLC Anil Bhosale are nominated public representatives in the senate. While the current UoP senate was formed in 2010 for a period of five years,the poor attendance and lack of active participation from all these public representatives in senate meetings held so far has remained a cause for concern. Considered as the principal authority for all financial estimates,budgetary appropriations and for providing social feedback to the university on current and future academic programmes,senate meetings are expected to review broad policies and programmes of the university and suggest measures for its improvement and development. Speaking to Newsline on Friday, MLA Thopate who is believed to have the worst attendance record in senate meetings,said heavy workload often kept him away from turning up for meetings. It is noteworthy that information on senate meeting is communicated to senate members three weeks in advance. MLC Bhosale said he did not show up for meetings as he had little knowledge about education sector. Education sector is totally new to me. I am gradually understanding it now, he said. DTE and DMER directors,both based in Mumbai,too have stayed away from meetings. Dhananjay Kulkarni of educational forum Vidyapeeth Vikas Manch said senate records are self-explanatory when it comes to assessing poor performances of public representatives and senior bureaucrats. Very rarely MLAs and MLCs turn up for meetings. If at all these public representatives attend meetings,they walk away after the inaugural speeches. They hardly ask any questions or move any proposal for the benefit of students or stakeholders. Maharashtra Governor,who is ex-officio chancellor of state universities,should take serious cognisance of this, he said.
