Hyderabad: The governor may not remain the chancellor of state universities in Telangana if the government has its way. The TRS government is examining various proposals to assume more control of universities in the state.
The government is considering amending the law to empower the incumbent government to appoint chancellors or even make the Chief Minister the permanent chancellor of all varsities instead of the Governor. Either way, the government will have greater power in appointing vice-chancellors of varsities.
Currently, as per the Universities Act, the governor is the chancellor of all state universities. Vice-chancellors are to be appointed by the chancellor from among a panel of eminent and experience persons selected by a search committee.
The TRS government is against this procedure of appointment of vice-chancellors and wants to amend the Universities Act. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had himself said in the Legislative Assembly that this procedure whereby “someone else” selected vice-chancellors was absurd and the government should have complete control over educational institutions.
Sources in the General Administration Depart-ment (GAD) said that the exercise of amending the Universities Act was underway. UGC rules state that vice-chancellors should be selected from amongst a panel of three members only and not otherwise.
Sources informed that the proposals being considering were to empower the government to directly appoint the chancellor, as is the case with the Damodar Sanje-evaiah National Law University in Visakhapatnam.
“The government can directly appoint its loyalist as chancellor and he or she will appoint the vice-chancellor as per the wish of the government. That is one proposal,” sources said.
The chief minister can also become the chancellor if the Act is amended; some sources, however, said that this proposal was less favoured.
Sources also informed that vice-chancellors would not be appointed until the Universities Act was amended. Late CM N.T. Rama Rao was the first chancellor of the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University.
