Indian
Express: Pondicherry: Thursday, 30 October 2014.
Two days after a major protest started at
Pondicherry Central University against the transfer of the registrar by the
vice-chancellor (V-C), a joint action council comprising over 1,000 students,
professors and non-teaching staff threatened to go on an indefinite strike from
November 11. The council, which is demanding the removal of V-C Chandra
Krishnamurthy, also plans to boycott the semester exams, scheduled to begin
from the third week of November.
“It is high time for the Human Resource
Development Ministry to remove this V-C, whose eligibility has been proved
wrong. If the ministry continues to ignore the plight of the academic system
and the violations in recruitment, we will be forced to go ahead with the
strike,” said Dastagiri Reddy, a senior faculty and secretary of the
Pondicherry University Teachers Association.
Calling it a political appointment, Reddy alleged
that former HRD minister Pallam Raju overruled the Visitor, the President of
India, in the selection of Krishnamurthy by nominating her name instead of
submitting a list of three candidates.
“She has never served as a professor. The UGC
insists on 10 years’ experience as a professor and publications in reputed
journals for V-C candidates,” he said. The Pondicherry University Act, 1985
says that the V-C shall be appointed by the Visitor from a panel of not less
than three persons.
But an internal report submitted before HRD
secretary Ashok Thakur last month, which has been accessed by The Indian
Express, shows that Juglal Singh, an under secretary in the ministry, allegedly
flouted rules in the V-C selection in November 2012. During the selection, he
noted in the file that the HRD minister may consider and recommend suitable
name to the President for the appointment of the university’s V-C.
Subsequently, Raju wrote on the file on December 10, 2012 that “Prof (Mrs.)
Chandra Krishnamurthy may be appointed as the V-C”.
A petition sent by the academics also rued that
Krishnamurthy did not meet the UGC criteria to become V-C. “She ordered
subordinates to keep files about her profile confidential and to deny
information regarding RTI queries. Whoever opposed such moves was either
transferred or victimised,” claimed a senior university official.
When contacted, registrar Raajiv Yaduvanshi, whose
repatriation order by the V-C had sparked the protests, said that Krishnamurthy
had used her official position to get her files marked as “Protected Personal
Information” by the Public Information Officer to deny RTI queries. “The misuse
of power had been reported to the HRD Ministry,” he said.
M Ramadass, former pro-V-C and a retired professor
who moved Madras High Court challenging the V-C’s appointment, said the HRD
Ministry is yet to address the issue.
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