Council ruckus on quitting of 17 VCs en masse

Vijayawada:The Legislative Council on Tuesday experienced a ruckus on the quitting of vice chancellors of 17 universities en masse.

The issue arose with HRD minister Nara Lokesh claiming that they were not forced to resign. He sought referring the matter to the Privilege Committee while the YSR Congress claimed that they were “forced to quit under duress,” and demanded a probe.

The issue of VCs resignation was raised by YSR Congress member and leader of the opposition Botsa Satyanarayana. He alleged that some VCs were instructed orally by the AP state council of higher education to quit. He said such a scenario was new to the state, and sought an inquiry into the issue.

He also said he wanted to include the period of 2014-19 under the previous TD rule too in the inquiry.

Lokesh said there was no word of any ‘threat’, in the letters written by the VCs, and alleged that some VCs appointed during the YSR Congress term did not even know proper English grammar. “Out of the 17 VCs who resigned, 10 claimed that they were quitting due to personal reasons, or cited no reason, while two stated they wanted to give a free hand to the new government to select VCs, while five said they were doing so based on oral instructions from the APSCHE.

Lokesh quoted some instances wherein the then YSR Congress government appointed VCs of its choice with no due regard to their merit. He quoted an instance, where a VC from Andhra University showed open loyalty to the YSRC, while in another instance, a kin of Raja Reddy was made the VC.

Lokesh said, “We wanted to enhance the quality of higher education and hence opted for new VCs. When applications were invited for such posts, we received as high as 500 applications.”

He said the present government selected the new VCs based on merit and the Governor has appointed them.

MLC Chandrasekhar Reddy asked the government as to why no inquiry was ordered when 17 VCs quit their post en masse.

With the members from both the government and the opposition raising their voices supporting the arguments of their respective sides, the house witnessed heated moments.

Council chairman Koyye Moshenu Raju had a tough time restoring order in the house. He gave a brief break to restore normalcy, but in vain. When the house resumed its session, there was fresh chaos, with the opposition members raising slogans that ‘We want justice’ and reiterated their demand for an inquiry.

At this juncture, the chairman adjourned the session for the day.