Cong MLA's daughter, councillor nominated to KSOU BoM

After much dilly dallying, the state government has finally nominated two women members to the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) board of management (BoM), which presently has only male members.

Both members come with strong political affiliations. While one is the daughter of the Congress MLA from Nargund, B R Yavagal; another is a Congress party leader and councillor of Dandeli City Municipal Council.

The department nominated Namratha B Yavagal and Yasmin Riyaz Kittur on October 27, and KSOU notified the same on October 30.

But as per the Karnataka State Open Universities Act, the nominated members should be from the academic, administrative or scientific   fields.

Nominations to the KSOU BoM have been shrouded in controversies, especially given the inordinate delay in appointments. The five posts had remained vacant since August 2013. It was only in early July this year that Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddi nominated the members.

This had, however, raised eyebrows as all five members were male. The KSOU Act stipulates that two of the five members, should be women, while one member should be from the SC/ST community. Following opposition, the department had withdrawn its July 3 order.

In its latest order, the department has terminated the nominations of M H Chandrashekar and Hazrat Ali Goravakolla, to accommodate the two women.

The other members are K S Shivaramu from Mysuru, Rachaiah from Chamarajanagar and Ramanna Salabhavi from Koppal.

Namratha, 35, is serving as the principal of Sanjay Gandhi Polytechnic, Ballari; Yasmin, 53, has been elected to the Dandeli City Council four times. She has been with the Congress party from 1996.

When contacted, both the women said that they were unaware that their names had been referred to the government.

The BoM comprises 15 members, including the KSOU V-C, registrar, dean academic, principal secretaries of the Higher Education department and Finance department, V-C of another varsity from the state, four legislators and five nominated members.

The term of the formerly nominated members had been withdrawn in 2013, after the Congress came to power, as all five of them had been appointed by the previous BJP government.