Shillong, June 23: The North Eastern Hill University (Nehu) today claimed that the draft minutes of the executive council meeting on the Hill Areas Special Allowance (HASA) had been sent to the Union ministry of human resource development instead of the confirmed minutes due to an inadvertent error, while affirming that the allowance has been discontinued.

The Nehu Teachers' Association had come out strongly against vice-chancellor S.K. Srivastava, alleging that he had "tampered" with the minutes of the 48th emergent meeting of the university's executive council meeting held on May 15 to discuss the special allowance.

The minutes dated May 16, which were sent to the ministry, noted: "The executive council had resolved to humbly accept the direction of the Visitor to the executive council of Nehu to take action for repeal of an ordinance that allows HASA. The council also resolved that the matter be placed before the academic council."

However, the other set of minutes, dated May 23, said: "After thorough deliberations, the council resolved that the matter be placed before the academic council."

The association had even written to the Visitor to the university, the President, to initiate an inquiry against Srivastava for allegedly tampering with the minutes.

Nehu public relations officer G. Umdor, in a statement, said: "The university clarifies that due to inadvertent error, the draft minutes of the 48th emergent executive council meeting signed on May 16 were forwarded instead of the confirmed minutes signed on May 23. This inadvertent error have been communicated to the ministry in a letter from the deputy registrar (conference). The vice-chancellor thus owned the responsibility of any inadvertent mistake from the university. Hence, there was no deliberate design or forgery or manipulation of minutes of any kind."

Umdor said a letter dated April 27 was sent to the secretary to the President, requesting the Visitor to allow the Nehu employees to continue to avail of the special allowance. This was sent in response to a letter dated April 3, which directed the university to stop payment to the employees.

Moreover, she said on June 12, a letter from the deputy secretary of the ministry of human resource development said the direction of the Visitor, that is, repealing of ordinance and discontinuance of payment of the allowance, should be complied with. Failure to comply would amount to intentional misappropriation of government funds and the person(s) who sanction the allowance and who receive the same would be solely responsible. "The allowance has been discontinued with effect from June 14 in the best interest of the university following the direction of the President in his capacity as the Visitor," Umdor said. Yesterday, the teachers' association and the Nehu Students' Union jointly called for the resignation of the vice-chancellor, stating that Srivastava has "lost all his legal and moral right" to remain in office.