Hyderabad: Prof Kodandaram, who has played a key role in the Telangana movement for the last four years as chairman of the Telangana Political JAC, is all set to return to teaching.
Though he was supposed to join his duties on Monday at Osmania University Post-Graduate College in Secunderabad, sources said he has sought some more time citing “personal reasons”. He is now likely to join by the end of this month.
With the OU vice-chancellor’s post falling vacant soon, Prof. Kodandaram is said to be aiming for the top post. Officials, however, say that his chances of becoming the OU vice-chancellor are remote since he will complete 10 years of seniority as professor only in 2016, which is a pre-requisite for the V-C’s post. However, the state government has the power to relax this norm.
Prof Kodandaram teaches Political Science at PG College in Secunderabad, a constituent college of OU.
He had not been regular in college from January 2010 to August 2012 and had applied for leaves frequently, using options such as “earned leaves” etc. and obtained salary.
With the Telangana agitation at its peak during this period and with Prof. Kodandaram leading from the front, the university administration too hesitated to act against him fearing trouble on the campus as the issue taken up by him was sensitive.
However, the Governor and Chancellor of Universities, E.S.L. Narasimhan, had received several complaints from various quarters about paying salary to Prof. Kodandaram despite being absent. The government had directed the Department of Higher Education to inquire into the issue. He was then forced to apply for “loss of pay”?from September 2012.
However as per university norms, even “loss of pay” is allowed on emergency grounds like health problems or pursuing academic activities in foreign countries etc. In this case, the university again hesitated to stick to the rules and allowed him to be on the varsity rolls, though under the “loss of pay” category, though he actively took part in T agitations.
OU PG College principal Prof. Gopal Reddy said, “We have no communication from Prof. Kodandaram about when he will join his duties. We came to know from the media about his joining duties from January 20. But he didn’t turn up.”
When contacted, Prof Kodandaram said, “I will definitely take up teaching again but I am still undecided about when to join. I can join as professor again since I am on leave and have not resigned. I still got nearly two years of service.”
He, however, refused to comment on whether he was eyeing the OU V-C’s post. “I can’t say anything about that now. All I can say is that I want to be back as a professor as early as possible.”
