BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government has been focusing on the 5T initiative to check corruption and transform administration, an order of the Governor asking for a Vigilance enquiry against a former Vice-Chancellor has remained unattended for the last over eight months.
On December 5 last year, Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal had asked the Chief Secretary to conduct a probe by the Vigilance department against the former Vice-Chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) SN Pasupalak, who has been accused of manipulating records for personal gains.
Though the probe report was sought within six weeks, there has been no response from the office of the Chief Secretary even after four reminders and the Governor’s personal request to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The Governor, who is the Chancellor of the University, had passed the order for an in-depth inquiry by the State Vigilance department following two petitions received from the then Minister for Agriculture and Panchayati Raj and Pro-Chancellor of OUAT against Pasupalak regarding manipulation of records.
Earlier, ex-assistant Registrar of OUAT had levelled serious allegations against Pasupalak over five issues. He had accused him of manipulating official records for personal benefits like full pension despite having been in service with contributory provident fund during his tenure in Bisra Agriculture University, Ranchi prior to joining OUAT in 1993.
He was also accused of admitting two ineligible applicants to first year in College of Agriculture and College of Veterinary Science in 2017 by terming it discretionary quota of State Government. Similarly, seven lower ranked applicants were admitted under defence quota to seven colleges of OUAT last year without prior publication in the prospectus.
Pasupalak had also been accused of issuing two advertisements with same issue number and date but with different eligibility conditions for recruitment of scientists/assistant professors in various Krushi Vikash Kendras and colleges in 2017.
Though the Governor’s Secretariat had reminded the Chief Secretary four times in the last eight months to conduct a fair probe by Vigilance department into these allegations and submit a report, the status of the matter is not known.
In a recent reminder, the Governor’s Secretariat has expressed concerns citing the Government has not taken any action to entrust the inquiry.
“It is a matter of concern that the personal request of the Governor to the Chief Minister for looking into the matter also has not been responded yet,” the letter to the Chief Secretary stated.