It's a race against time for new varsities as BU delays assets' transfer

The newly formed Bengaluru North University (BNU) and Bengaluru Central University (BCU) are anxious about their preparedness for their maiden academic year, 2018-19, as the parent university has not yet finished transferring properties.

The government had issued an order on December 6, instructing Bangalore University (BU) to transfer assets to the new varsities.

The land and buildings on the Central College campus were to be transferred to the BCU, but officials say the process is getting delayed.

"We have hardly a few months left for the academic year to begin. The buildings on the campus are in a shambles and we need to undertake repair works. We cannot begin any of this work as long as the property still belongs to BU," Prof S Japhet, the vice-chancellor of BCU,  said.

In the order, the government had instructed BU to give teaching and non-teaching staff the option to choose where they want to be transferred. Of the total sanctioned non-teaching posts, BU has to transfer 100 posts each to the new universities. A circular regarding this process is yet to be issued.  

Prof M S Reddy, the  registrar of BNU, said once the posts were transferred, they would need at least three months to complete the recruitment process. "We will have to see how many posts remain vacant. Then, taking into account reservations, we will have to issue advertisements to fill the vacancies. The entire process needs to be completed well before the new academic year," he said.

Formation of a board of studies and a board of examinations can also be done only after the teaching faculty are transferred to the new universities, he pointed out.

Both BCU and BNU have brought the matter to the notice of the Higher Education Department and have also been following up with the parent university, asking officials there to expedite the process.

A senior official of BU said the work on transferring assets was underway. "It will take some time. The property documents are very old, so we need to put them in order," he said.

Though the government order makes syndicate approval unnecessary, BU is undertaking the process through it, calling meetings to ratify the transfers. The official said that they were doing it for the records.