Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: The Nationalist Students Union of India (NSUI) Goa unit has petitioned Goa Governor and Chancellor of Goa University PS Sreedharan Pillai seeking an inquiry into the alleged termination of Scholar Research Associate Dikansh Parmar, hailing from Surat, Gujarat.
In their petition, the NSUI Goa President Naushad Chowdhari has accused his senior Dr Nitin Sawant- both working on project “Diversity of Herpetofauna of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka”, of stealing the authorship rights of the paper written by Pamar, to his (Sawant) wife which is totally illegal and against the rules set by the UGC.
NSUI has urged Pillai to set up an impartial three-member inquiry Committee to investigate the matter and place Parmar termination on hold pending the same.
Chowdhari informed that Parmar had been working under Sawant since January, 2020 and putting in almost 15 to 17 hours daily, and the testimony to this are the five research manuscripts and one book entitled “Snakes of Goa” submitted to Dr. Nitin within one year of his joining on the project. His work has novel findings, including the first record of genus Hemiphyllodactylus and a new species of gecko.
“It is disheartening to inform that PI Nitin Sawant tried to serve him a termination letter with false allegations and without any show-cause notice,” NSUi said.
Following an appeal made by Parmar, NSUI said that a one-member committee was formed by the then VC to enquire about the matter.
“The member appointed on the committee Prof. S. Tilve from Chemistry department has been completely biased. Instead of discussing the reasons mentioned in the termination letter, he shifted the focus in a totally different direction and falsely justified his termination,” they said.
NSUI said that Sawant’s act of giving the authorship rights of the paper written by Pamar to his wife was totally illegal and against the rules set by the UGC as the wife was not even part of the project.
“When the said research scholar objected about this, he was terminated on false allegations by the assistant professor Nitin Sawant which is endorsed by the Registrar Of Goa University,” they said.
NSUI urged the Chancellor to revoke Parmar termination and initiate at least an impartial 3-Member Enquiry Committee to get justice.