64 SOCIAL SCIENTIST The DUTA demanded repeal of the Ordinance. The new Ordinance had added to the power of the already most powerful body of the University—the Executive Council which, curiously enough, does not have any teacher representative on it. It would thus result into further concentration of power in the hands of the Vice-Ghancellor, and would increase the Government control over the University affairs. The college councils were nothing but a backdoor method for introducing the process of delinking the colleges from the University with all its adverse implications for higher education and teachers' service conditions. Autonomy given to the professional colleges will only increase the power of the administrators of these institutions. Since the Government had already promised a comprehensive legislation on the entire question of university governance, the DUTA said that the ad hoc steps taken through the Ordinance and then through the university statutes should first be withdrawn so that a comprehensive structure of the university could be defined through discussions within the university. The new power given to the executive council could be seen in a different context, if only the composition of the council was a democratic one. The College Council came to be the focal point particularly for two reasons : one, because of the background where efforts to separate the colleges were clearly indicated, and two, the struggle for democratisa-tion would suffer a serious set-back if separation of undergraduate education from post-graduate education was to be a fait accompli. Repeated assurances were given by the Education Minister that College Councils meant mere administrative decentralisation (it meant no separation) and that the teachers' salaries and privileges would be protected. But neither these assurances were taken seriously by the teachers nor was the issue of salary scales considered the most important one. Resolutions, requests and other forms of argumentation marked the first phase of the DUTA's movement followed by two strong demonstrations and a token-strike. Then came the Ordinance in the form of Bill before the Rajya Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha itself, consideration of the Bill was twice postponed. The Government, then introduced several amendments to the Bill restricting the unilateral powers of the Executive Council and changing the nomenclature of the College Councils. But the DUTA laid due emphasis on scrapping of the College Councils. At the same time attempts to divide the teachers in the name of 'politically motivated agitation' continued all through—inside the DUTA, the Parliament and elsewhere. Thanks to the teachers' unity, all these mischief-mongers came to naught . The 4,000 and odd non-teaching staff joined hands with the DUTA. After the Bill was passed, the DUTA said that since the College Councils were brought into existence by the University Statutes, the University could still scrap the College Councils by repealing the Statutes. And on 4th September, the Vice-Ghancellor