THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has excluded the nominee of the governor – who is also the Chancellor of varsities – from a search committee constituted to select a new vice chancellor for the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU).
The panel has five members as per the provisions of a bill passed recently by the assembly. The President had withheld assent to the controversial bill. The order constituting the search committee was issued by the animal husbandry department close on the heels of Governor Arif Mohammed Khan staying the varsity general council’s decision to reinstate two officials who were suspended following the death of student J S Sidharthan earlier this year.
The panel has Neelima Gupta, the vice chancellor of Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, as UGC nominee, former Kerala University vice chancellor B Ekbal as KVASU representative, former Agriculture University vice chancellor P Rajendran as state government nominee, Raman Sukumaran as the nominee of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, and Raghavendra Bhatia as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research representative.
Conventionally, it is the governor’s office that issues the order constituting the search committee to select the vice chancellors of universities. Since the government has gone ahead and formed the search committee on its own, there is very little chance of the Governor appointing a vice chancellor from the probables shortlisted by this panel.