Bengaluru: In order to deal with rampant corruption during the appointments of Vice Chancellors, registrars, teaching and non-teaching posts in the state universities, the state government has amended the State Universities’ Act.
As per the amendment brought about in the recently concluded Belagavi session, the state government has withdrawn all the appointment powers of the state universities.
All these appointments will be done through a centralized government committee, which will have its office in Bengaluru. The university authorities will now have no powers over the recruitments for both teaching and non-teaching posts.
According to state government sources, the decision to bring the amendment was taken following large-scale complaints that each teaching post in a university was being sold for an average Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore.
“An investigation ordered by the Governor against the former VCs of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) and Mysore University has revealed large-scale irregularities in various appointments. To curb such corruption, the state government will set up its own agency to carry out appointments,” explained a senior officer.
“The next step would be a state-level project monitoring committee to keep an eye on the construction works taken up by the universities, which are often accused of taking kickbacks,” he added.
Attack on autonomy
However, several academicians feel that this amendment was an attack on the autonomy of the universities. A retired vice-chancellor of a university said only a handful of VCs were indulging in corruption. “Instead of strengthening the Lokayukta-like institution, the state government is attacking the autonomy of the universities,” he said.
Impact
State higher education department officials feel the amendment would bring down corruption in university appointments. “There are a lot of allegations that VC post aspirants are spending anywhere between Rs 5-50 lakh. They in turn use the appointment of others to collect money. But once the appointment powers of the universities are withdrawn, this would come to an end,” explained an officer.
