CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) has levelled a series of caste discrimination charges against Madras University Vice-Chancellor S Gowri. TNUEF general secretary K Samuel Raj, in a letter written to Chief Minister MK Stalin, called for severe action against the V-C and efforts to eradicate caste discrimination at the university. The V-C, however, denied the charges.
According to the letter, the university had excluded the reservation for BC, MBC, SC, and ST candidates in its recent notification for recruiting 23 assistant lecturers for a period of 240 days. The letter said it a violates the guidelines of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions department.
Further allegations include not allocating a room to the head of the politics and public administration department, who belongs to an SC community, despite her having assumed the office a year ago. It also alleged that an associate professor of biochemistry at the Taramani campus was discriminated against and denied promotion as a professor despite being eligibile.
With interviews for the posts of registrar and controller of examination among others soon to be held, and considering the attitude of the V-C, TNUEF feared that people from SC/ST communities will not be considered for higher posts if the State doesn’t intervene in the issue, the letter said.
Meanwhile, S Gowri denied all the charges and said, “No university follows reservation policy in appointments to temporary posts.” He said the political and public administration HoD was given a room and an office, and that the promotion of the associate professor would be proposed by the selection committee as per norms and approved by the syndicate. “Many long-standing problems of the communities were solved after I became V-C,” he added.
‘No quota in notification’
The letter said a recent notfication for recruiting 23 assistant lecturers excluded reservation for BC, MBC, SC, and ST candidates