Bangalore varsity in a fix over ‘recruitment backlog’

The Bangalore University (BU) administration is now in a fix after inviting applications to fill up ‘long vacant positions’.

Opposing the move, BU officials and research scholars protested by thronging the vice chancellor’s (VC) chamber on Wednesday.

“We welcome the move. But there are a lot of irregularities in the procedure. Though there are no vacancies, senior BU officials are showing filled up seats as vacant, and have invited applications for the positions,” the protesters alleged.

According to the protesters, though the deputy chief minister, Dr G Parameshwara, had ordered the VC to conduct an inquiry and stop the recruitment, the BU has openly invited the applications.

“As there were allegations on BU officials over giving wrong information to the social welfare department, the deputy chief minister had ordered to freeze the recruitment. This shows the stubborn attitude of the VC. Isn’t there any value to deputy chief minister’s order?”asked a research scholar.

“The separate committee was formed to identify the requirements of the backlog positions. But till date there is not even a single meeting chaired. If these people give positions to their candidates why would we need a committee. Government should conduct a proper inquiry into the matter,” said Mylarappa, director in-charge, BU distance education.

Commenting on the development, BU VC Venugopal KR said, “I will be writing to the government. For now, I have written to the various departments asking for information on the backlog. After getting the information from the departments we will publish this on the website. Later, if there are any objections we will submit that to government. Thereafter, we will follow the government orders.”

BU engineer suspended

Meanwhile, the higher education principal secretary has ordered the suspension of BU Engineer Puttaswamy, after an allegation that he misappropriated Rs 1.50 crore.

“This will be discussed in the syndicate meeting scheduled on Thursday. The public records department had raised an objection to the accounts submitted by Puttaswamy,” a senior BU official told DH.