Cachar College an institution or house of Bigg Boss? Teachers complain against Principal's CCTV surveillance, appointment of PS

“Bigg Boss chahte hain ki aap abhi confession room mein aaye”. When someone does wrong, this is what the omnipresent man with a baritone says in the show. Bigg Boss is one of the largest television productions in India, the adapted version of the British reality show format Big Brother airs every year on Viacom18’s General Entertainment Channel, Colors. Salman Khan hosts the show. The set of the show which is a walled house has CCTV cameras installed in every corner and they film the contestant. This show is one of the greatest case studies of voyeuristic pleasure. People watch it to have a sneak peek into celebrities and their daily lives.

Cachar College too has a Bigg Boss  – the Principal of the institution, Dr. Siddhartha Sankar Nath. After joining the post, he has disowned the government of Assam’s standard operating procedures to keep track of attendance and instead started his own surveillance by installing CCTV cameras. The density of the cameras beat the density in Deputy Commissioner’s office, or District Police Headquarters or Silchar Central Jail. What are these cameras keeping an eye on in an educational institution?

Today, more than 30 teacher of the Cachar College submitted a list of allegations against the Principal to the Principal himself. The teachers said that they don’t have a problem with Dr. Siddhartha Sankar Roy the Principal but the problems are with the principles or sheer lack of it. The professors are in this profession by choice and they deserve respect. According to the document accessed by Barak Bulletin, the Principal has appointed a Grade IV employee as his Personal Secretary to Principal – a post that does not exist in Provincialised Colleges. Not just the appointment, the Principal has even allocated an airconditioned room to the PS which carries his name-plate on the door.

The teachers are asked to seek an appointment from the Grade IV staff to meet the Principal who, according to the allegations, never attend college before 1:00 pm. The principal has also appointed unauthorised individuals to handle and man the CCTV cameras and access the footage recorded. The Principal, Dr. Siddhartha Sankar Nath is accused of accessing the CCTV footage at his wish to meet his desires – knowing who has met whom, if there is an affair between students or teachers, who are wearing what to the college, and many more.

Here is the complete list of allegations against Principal Siddhartha Sankar Nath submitted by teachers who also happen to be his colleagues in the fraternity:

1. Ever since his joining he has rarely attended the College before 1 PM. Every day College remains without any guardian from Morning to late noon.

2. He has redesignated one Grade IV employee of the College, Sri Subhabrata Das, as Personal Secretary to the Principal. He has arranged a well-furnished AC Room for that so-called PS to Principal with a nameplate outside the door! What is even more ridiculous and annoying is that teachers have to seek prior appointments from that Grade IV employee-turned-PS to the Principal to meet the Principal! Teachers are deliberately made to sit for hours outside the Principal’s Office even as the Principal is found hobnobbing with the Grade IV staff inside. Nobody dares to ask him as to how a non-gazetted and non-statutory officer appoints a Personal Secretary!

3. Likewise he appointed three Coordinators (Arts, Science, and Commerce) and coordinators (Finance and accounts) so that they look like Deans and FAO respectively of an Indian university and he appears as the VC of a University! He has thrown all rules, regulations, set practices of College management in a Provincialised College and is managing the show in a dictatorial, vindictive and whimsical manner.

4. Due to his careless and whimsical attitude the NCC Boys wing of the college is going to be disbanded by the concerned authority. In utter disregard to the policies and rules formulated by Govt. of India, UGC, Assam Government and DHE, the Principal did not find the importance of having NCC in an educational institution.

5. He is involved in mental harassment of a young lady Assistant Professor in the Department of Sanskrit of the College, viz, Smt Nayana Goswami. In the name of so-called inter-disciplinarity, he has asked her to take classes in History and Philosophy. In spite of verbal order from the office of the DHE contrary to him, he is still putting pressure on Smt Nayana Goswami to take classes outside her domain of knowledge.

6. In the name of disciplining the teachers (there was no cognizable evidence of indiscipline on the campus in any case) and make them punctual (what they always were) he has unleashed a reign of terror in the College. In utter violations of all the provisions of the Govt. Notification No. AHE.396/2012/46-A, dated 21-12-2012 regarding Punching Machine he is using CCTV footage to do spying on the movement of teachers. In contravention of the relevant order he does not register his attendance in the Biometric Machine. He has never made available to the teachers the print outs of the attendance of the employees on a monthly basis which he is bound to do.

7. The principal has installed scores of CCTV cameras inside the college campus. This is fine but what is disturbing is that he has seen employed some unauthorised persons to monitor the CCTV footage in his office chamber. Intern, the persons monitoring CCTV footage of violating all model norms by breaking into previous year or female students and teachers. This is SURE sickening to put on record how a principle remains glued to footages of lady colleagues in confirmation of his deranged mentality. There is no ecosystem of security of sensitive CCTV data.

8. The college governing body is an important institution of college affairs. This body is supposed to ensure that college is being managed and administered in accordance with the said rules and guidelines laid down by the government in the higher education department and the DHE from time to time. But, unfortunately, the GB, Cachar college, much like the principal, has been thoroughly violating all rules laid down in Assam college management rule, 2001. For instance, in a recent meeting of the GB dated 30-5-2022, there were 29 members including some non-sanctioned temporary employees of the college present on invitation of the principal! The GB has now turned to be models of cup panchayats where resolutions according to the whims and caprices of the principal or forcefully written down. And the president who ruefully does not have any exposure to affairs of higher education, remains a mute spectator to such happenings

To read the full list of complaints and demands click here