Even as the search committee constituted by Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to shortlist candidates for the vice-chancellor’s post of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) in the state is set to meet on September 24, several academicians have questioned the release of a large amount of funds by the university at the fag end of its VC’s term.
The documents shared by a VTU former registrar revealed that the university released Rs 20 crore for works taken up at Choranahalli, Mysuru and another big tranche to purchase software for the university, as per a report by The New Indian Express. Several former VCs and registrars, including Jagannath Reddy, MS Shivakumar, H Maheshappa and K Balaveera Reddy, have objected to the release of funds by the university at the fag end of the VC’s tenure, as per The New Indian Express.
They said that as per rules, the VCs are not supposed to take any major decisions, including big spends, when their term is set to end over the next three to six months. But a top VTU official defended the release of Rs 20 crore, saying the amount has gone to the Housing Board, a government body that has taken up the construction work at Choranahalli.
“The decision by VTU to release the amount has been taken by the university authorities in concurrence with the decision made by the executive council earlier,’’ he contended, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
Not just this, a few academicians have also questioned the selection of members to the search committee constituted to select the VC, arguing that two of them, representing the VTU Executive Council and VTU Senate, are not professors at VTU or any of its affiliated colleges.
A former VTU VC and a former registrar said that earlier, at least one of the VTU representatives in the search committee would be a professor from a VTU-affiliated institution. But this time, both the candidates who are VTU representatives— Kripashankar, former VC of Uttar Pradesh Technical University and Jitendra Nayak — are not working with VTU-affiliated colleges.
The government nominee in the committee, Prof MS Shivakumar, however, is a former registrar of VTU and also former principal of the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru.
The VTU Executive Council and Senate have several well-known professors, but none of them made it to the search committee, the former VC said, adding that one of the VTU nominees was also a member of the Academic Council of Gogte Institute of Technology, Belagavi.
According to sources, over 50 candidates have applied for the VC’s post and the committee is expected to shortlist three of them at the September 24 meeting at Raj Bhavan.
