VISAKHAPATNAM: WHILE ragging issue usually brings a bad name to universities, the scene in Andhra University taken a turn for the worse with a lady professor being accused of harassing women scholars.
A complaint was lodged against Manjula David of the department of English, by the lady research scholars for harassing them. Andhra University officials constituted a three-member committee to investigate the allegations.
The scholars were initially guided by Dr Sudeeptha in 2008. After her retirement in 2009, they were under the guidance of Manjula. She was very friendly in the beginning with the students and later showed her ‘real’ character. It is heard that the woman scholars in the department who had to complete their PhD in 2010 submitted no due certificate in January 2011. She has been harassing them by making the students work for her personal needs, scold them in front of other scholars, make them wait at her class for long hours and even made the male scholars make calls to the married woman students. The students approached Andhra University vice-chancellor G Nageswara Rao and complained that the accused professor had been verbally abusing and punishing them.
The VC constituted a committee with AU College of Arts Principal K Gayathri Devi as chairperson and Women Grievance Redressal Cell converner Sumitra and professor of Political Science and Public Administration Nalini as members.
Responding to the issue, Gayathri Devi said, “It’s a confidential issue and we cannot tell whether the allegations are true or not. We are still enquiring to know the facts based on the complaint given by the woman scholars.”