KOZHIKODE: The unfortunate events that led to an open fight between Calicut University Vice-Chancellor M Abdul Salam and the Syndicate members will literally bring the governance of the university to a standstill. Several agendas that were expecting the assent of the Syndicate will be delayed due to the fight, one of the important issues being the purchase of 13 servers for the Pareeksha Bhavan.
The employees said that they had an immediate need of minimum three computers to carry out hall-ticket preparation, online registration and single-window admission. “The immediate effect will be on the examination system and we need a minimum of three servers now. The fight between the Syndicate members and the Vice-chancellor is causing inordinate delay in the purchase of servers,” the source said. It was decided to purchase 13 new servers for the Pareeksha Bhavan, which is currently banking on personal computers for its functioning instead of the needed servers, at a Syndicate meeting held in the beginning of the year.
Directives were given to get specifications from the computer centre and tenders were called. The lowest tender was quoted at `55 lakh, which got approval from the Syndicate. Suspicions arose from four of the Senate members, when the specifications of all the servers belonged to one particular company, IBM.
They referred the issue back to the purchase department and at that point the Vice-chancellor cancelled the bid, saying that tenders for amount exceeding `50 lakh should be called via e-tender. But when e-tender was called, the same company quoted the lowest and with an increase of `2.75 lakh than the earlier quoted amount via normal tender. Then the Syndicate members said that they would not let the extra amount and it should be compensated by the VC. Changing from their earlier stance, when the university demanded extended warranty for the servers instead of the first three years’ warranty, the company is said to have demanded `7 lakh more.