BANGALORE: The search committee constituted to select the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) met on Friday morning, without the State government’s nominee, and sent a list of names to the Raj Bhavan.
It is being speculated that current V-C H Maheshappa may get a second term.
Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Dr SS Mantha, who is the State government’s nominee, told Express that his request to reschedule the meeting was not considered.
“I had intimated the government and the Raj Bhavan about my schedule and requested to reschedule the meeting in July,” he said.
Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande was not available for comment.
The official said the AICTE is in the middle of affiliation and approval processes for engineering courses for the current academic year.
“Affiliation is an important job and is the need of the hour. If they (government) really wanted my presence, they could have rescheduled the meeting,” Mantha said.
According to sources in the Raj Bhavan, the panel submitted three names. “The meeting got over by 2.30 pm and the new V-C will be declared by Saturday evening,” a source said.
Maheshappa’s term, which was extended by a year, will expire by the end of this month. When his term ended in 2013, the BJP government’s nominee to the search committee was then IISc director Prof P Balaram. Balaram too was not present at the meeting, but the search committee went ahead and submitted its suggestions.
D P Agrawal, Chairman, Union Public Service Commission, is the Governor’s nominee on the current search committee. The VTU Senate selected D H Rao, Dean of the University, and the Executive Council nominated V D Maitri, former principal of PDA College, Gulbarga.
Committee Draws Flak
The search committee has come in for criticism as Maitri is facing criminal charges. Agrawal was conferred an honorary doctorate by VTU in 2013.
The other nominee, Rao, worked under present V-C H Maheshappa as dean. He is not supposed to be on the committee, being a part of the university, academicians said
Many academicians and aspirants raised their voices against the committee and former VTU V-C Prof Balaveera Reddy also wrote to the Governor and the government. A PIL was also filed on Friday and the same is likely to come up for hearing in the High Court on Monday.
WHO is IN THE FRAY
According to sources in the VTU, the Higher Education Department and at Raj Bhavan, Dr H Maheshappa may get a second term. Of the three names finalised by the search committee on Friday, his name is second on the list, the sources said. The other are Prof S C Sharma, former V-C of Tumkur University and Dr K R Venugopal, principal of University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore.