Director CEC asks universities to fill post of media centre heads

Srinagar, Dec 19: Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) has asked all the Universities including the Kashmir University (KU) to "urgently" initiate the recruitment process for the Director Media Centre.

As per the official communication issued by the Director CEC Prof Jagat Bhushan Nadda, a copy of which has been sent to the VC KU Prof Nilofer Khan, it has been stated that post of director Media centre be advertised in accordance with the approved rules and time bound follow up action be taken so that a regular Director for media centre is in place.

"Presently, the posts of Media Directors in most of the EMRCs are lying vacant and the work of the Media Center is being managed by assigning additional charge to one of the senior faculty of the University," Director CEC in his official communication has said.

He said the issue has a bearing on the efficient functioning, performance and output of EMRC as the director post is not filled up on a regular basis in accordance with the approved recruitment rules.

"These rules were approved in the 46th Meeting of the Governing Board of CEC which was held on October 8 of 2021. It can be seen from the recruitment rules that essential educational and other qualifications required for the post basically relate to experience in Media or Mass communication especially in television program development as Producer or Director or Engineer or Researcher," the official communication reads.

Director CEC has said that as the posts of Media Directors in most of the EMRCs are unfilled work of the Media Center is being managed by assigning additional charge to one of the senior faculty of the University. "As in-charge of the Media Center, such faculty has also to attend to his primary academic duties In the University which in itself is a full time job," he said.

The communication reads that under these circumstances, the in-charge director was not able to justifiably devote full attention to the Media work. "Even in appointing an in-charge Director, the laid down procedure seems to have been inadvertently ignored," Director CEC has said in a communication addressed to VC KU. The Director CEC has referred to some provision of UGC which state that "In case the full time Director is yet to be appointed or he/she is on long leave, a senior professor of the University/Institution may be given additional charge as Director of the Media Center, by the VC/Head of the Institution for a period not exceeding one year with the approval of UGC in consultation with CEC."

"However, while assigning additional charge, neither CEC is consulted nor approval of UGC is taken. This is harming the larger public interest as in some cases, the faculty which has no exposure or experience of having worked on mass media is being assigned the additional charge of Director," the official communication reads.