Cong govt made ineligible ones Syndicate members: GTD

Higher Education Minister G T Devegowda took on his bete noire, former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday, by accusing the previous Congress regime of nominating “ineligible” persons as Syndicate members in universities.

“Syndicate memberships given in the previous government were political in nature. Some were not eligible to be Syndicate members,” Devegowda told reporters.

Our government will appoint qualified people and we will, as much as possible, avoid making political nominations,” he added.

Devegowda fought a bitter election against Siddaramaiah and in what became a huge upset, defeated him in the Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency.

On July 7, Siddaramaiah, who also heads the Coalition Coordination and Monitoring Committee, had explicitly asked Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy not to remove the Syndicate members nominated during the previous government’s regime as they were “experts”.

Paying no heed, the Devegowda-led Higher Education department issued a notification on July 17 withdrawing the state government’s nominees to the Syndicate and other decision-making bodies in 17 universities.

“Within six months of him taking charge, Siddaramaiah withdrew the Syndicate members who were nominated by the BJP,” Devegowda said, justifying his move.

The minister said he had directed the officials to kickstart the process of nominating new Syndicate members and also ensure vice-chancellors are appointed soon in universities where the post was vacant. These will be the first appointments to take place under the Congress-JD(S) government, Devegowda pointed out.

Apparently, the Finance department has agreed to recruit nearly 5,000 teachers’ posts. “This includes about 4,800 teachers and 395 principals,” he said.

The government is holding talks with Nabard seeking funds for developing infrastructure at higher education institutions, the minister said. “We have asked NABARD for Rs 3,000 crore, but they are willing to give only Rs 80-160 crore. We are also trying to get funds from the World Bank,” he said.

Devegowda also reviewed the status of the newly-built 55 students hostels. He directed formation of four committees to figure out how best these hostels can be used if there are not enough students wanting to avail the facility.