BENGALURU: The state Higher Education Department seems to have woken up from a slumber and appointed a fact-finding committee overnight to look into the ongoing dispute at Alliance University, Bengaluru.
The issue came up at the winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi and the Higher Education Department constituted a fact-finding committee on Wednesday night. It directed the experts to visit the university campus and submit a report within 24 hours.
The committee comprises Dr B Thimme Gowda, Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, Dr Chandrashekara Shetty, former V-C of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Bengaluru, and SA Kori, executive director of Karnataka State Council for Higher Education. According to the information from official sources, the experts received information around 9.30pm on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, Dr Thimme Gowda had called for a press conference to brief about an international conference, but he was absent from the conference. He left a message that he could not attend due to confidential work/responsibility given by the government.
A source said, “The fact-finding committee has to send/submit the report via fax to the Higher Education Department officials at Belagavi by 8pm on Thursday.”
Following the directions by the department officials, the committee members reached the Alliance University campus at Anekal around 8.30am on Thursday to interact with students and staff members.
When questioned about the formation of a committee overnight, a senior official of the department said, “We already have a report of the inquiry commission, but that was constituted only to inquire on the allegations against the former Chancellor of Alliance University Dr Madhukar G Angur. This fact-finding committee will submit a report from the perspective of the students.”
Academic calendar disturbed thrice this year
After receiving the inquiry commission report on November 8, the department issued notice to authorities of the university. As the department did not receive a reply from the authorities even after 10 days, on November 20, classes resumed in the presence of officials of Higher Education Department. However, just a day after classes resumed, former Chancellor Madhukar G Angur allegedly appointed new faculty members. Opposing the appointment of ineligible faculty members, students refused to attend classes. In the present academic year, the university’s academic calendar was disturbed thrice when holidays were declared due to the dispute between the two brothers.