V-C can't shirk responsibility: Mylarappa

Mylarappa, who became the registrar on November 2, 2011 much against the wishes of the V-C, insisted on Wednesday that Dev’s presence was “absolutely necessary” in the head office (at Jnanabharathi) to run the administration.

“The V-C is the head of the university. If he is not present in the main campus, the administrative machinery will stop functioning. He should have the moral courage to visit the main campus and not shirk his responsibility citing clumsy reasons,” Mylarappa told Deccan Herald.

Mylarappa has the backing of Minister for Higher Education, V S Acharya, who is not on good terms with Dev. Mylarappa said that he was willing to take the responsibility if the V-C faced “an atmosphere of intolerance” when he visits the main campus. “I’m ready to face the consequences. I assure him full protection,” he said.

Mylarappa, who the V-C suspects is “orchestrating” the recent waves of protests to destabilise him, said that the university’s administrative machinery would “move faster” when the entire team joined hands.

“(But) when the link is missing, the work would suffer, resulting in discontentment and frustration among all concerned,” Mylarappa said.

The entire machinery in the university would collapse if the V-C stopped taking interest. The varsity had several important issues to attend to. The Academic Council has not met for several months and its meeting scheduled for December 22 has been put off.

Most importantly, the “disorder” in the examination section has angered the students, many of whom took part in the protest that preceded the ugly incident on Monday, the registrar added. 

The registrar condemned last week’s attack by Sri Rama Sene chief, Pramod Mutalik, and his men on B R Niranjan, Director of Correspondence Courses and Distance Education, but also maintained that such outfits had a democratic right to agitate for redressal of grievances. Asked about Monday’s assault on Dev, Mylarappa said that it was “just an accident” and happened in the melee.

Besides, the annual convocation has to be held in the last week of January, 2012, but the preparations are heading nowhere, Mylarappa said.

The registrar has written a letter to the V-C urging him to ignore “petty differences” and not let the work suffer on any count.

Assault on BU officer: Government to verify veracity

Minister for Higher Education Dr V S Acharya has said that the State government will inquire into the veracity of the charges against Akhila Bharatiya Vidayarti Parishad activists of assaulting B R Niranjan, Director of Correspondence Courses and Distance Education, Bangalore University, reports DHNS from Gulbarga.

“Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor Dr Prabhu Dev and Syndicate members have apprised me of the incident. Legal action will be initiated against the ABVP activists, if their involvement in the incident is established. Talks have been held with Parishad leaders to ensure that such incidents did not repeat,” the minister said here on Wednesday.

Acharya said the purview of Bangalore University was very vast. Hence it had been decided to set up one more varsity. He said concurrence from the Financial department had been sought for the recruitment of lecturers. The Karnataka Public Service Commission would be entrusted with the responsibility.

The minister ruled out any possibility of Sadananda Gowda stepping down as chief minister.