BU controversy echoes in D'gere, G'barga varsities

Registrars appointment: Govt stays transfers

Subsequently, the registrars forcibly took charge without the approval of the Vice-Chancellors.

To make matters even more murky, a circular from the Chief Minister’s secretariat has asked the Higher Education Department to stay the “transfers” of registrars throughout the State. The circular issued by the CM’s secretary M Lakshminarayana has also instructed the Higher Education department to move the files to the CM.

However, the Principal Secretary of the Department of Higher Education A S Srikanth maintained that the appointments stood as the instructions were not a ‘Government Order’. “The appointments stand as I have not received any communication from the CM’s office,” Srikanth said. He added that he was not aware of the impedance at the other universities and the objections raised by the Davangere University V-C Professor Indumathi to the new Registrar’s appointment.

Highly placed sources at universities around the state said that authorities in the department were in a hurry to appoint the Registrars and had issued orders to hand over the responsibilities with “immediate effect”.

 The newly appointed Registrars at Bangalore University were informed about the circular by Registrar (Evaluation) in-charge K Puttaraju. Both Dr M G Krishnan and Dr M S Talwar returned to their respective departments on Tuesday and said that they were “happy to continue” with their existing responsibilities. The Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University Dr N Prabhu Dev was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, speaking to Deccan Herald the Vice-Chancellor of Davangere University, Professor Indumathi said that she had expressed her reservations against the new Registrar Professor N K Gowda taking charge at the Varsity to the Department. “I had asked the new Registrar to wait for a two days before assuming charge until further direction from the government but he insisted on taking charge,” she said.
High placed sources at the Davangere University said that the V-C had expressed her reservations on grounds of Professor Gowda’s track record. The V-C was reportedly unhappy over Lokayukta inquiry against Gowda and other questionable practices.

In a similar scenario, the new Registrar at Gulbarga University Professor S L Hiremath too forcibly took charge at the Univeristy. Reliable sources told Deccan Herald that the Registrar refused to wait for the V-C’s approval to take charge. The V-C of Gulbarga University Professor V G Mulimani was in Delhi had asked the new Registrar to wait till his arrival to take charge.

However, sources said that Hiremath insisted on taking charge and “pressurised” the Registrar in-charge Pratap Tiwari to transfer charge.

Pratap Tiwari said “The V-C was not at the headquarters and I requested the new Registrar to wait for the V-C to approve the joining report but Hiremath insisted that he take over immediately.” Sources said that eventually Hiremath took charge forcibly.