The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT), to which all private technology institutions in the state are affiliated to, got its second officiating vice-chancellor in two-and-a-half months on Thursday with governor C.V.Ananda Bose asking a Jadavpur University teacher to perform the duties of vice-chancellor.
Bose, who is chancellor of MAKAUT and all other state-aided universities, had on April 26 appointed Indranil Mukherjee, a teacher of the tech varsity, to perform the duties of VC of the same university.
It had been functioning without a VC for nearly one-and-a-half months till then.
Mukherjee told this newspaper that he learnt about the chancellor having selected his replacement from the registrar on Thursday. “I had no clue until then,” he said.
The chancellor on Wednesday appointed Gautam Majumdar, a professor of mechanical engineering at JU, as the officiating VC of the technology university, continuing with the pattern of engaging officiating VCs in state-aided universities regardless of the fact that an ordinance was promulgated in May for the appointment of full-term VCs through formal search committees.
The chancellor had signed the ordinance on the constitution of a five-member search committee for each university.
“It is further ordered that Prof. Gautam Majumdar… is authorised to exercise the power and perform the duties of vice-chancellor for MAKAUT… till further orders,” says an order signed by chancellor Bose on Wednesday.
Gautam Majumdar took over the responsibilities from Thursday.
JU registrar Snehamanju Basu said Majumdar has been granted a lien.
None of the 31 state-aided universities in Bengal has a full-term VC. Some are being helmed by officiating VCs, like the technology university (Makaut).
A platform of former vice-chancellors had on July 3 demanded at a news conference the appointment of full-term VCs because, they contended, permanent VCs can provide the academic leadership that a university needs.
Om Prakash Mishra, former interim VC of North Bengal University, on Thursday said: “I think this chancellor is not serious at all about a full-term VC through the search committee. The chancellor has yet to name who would be his nominee for the search committee. The position of VC has now turned out to be a musical chair of sorts.”
The ordinance promulgated on May 15 says: “The search-cum-selection committee shall be constituted in the following manner:— (i) a nominee of the chancellor, who shall be the chairperson of the committee; (ii) a nominee of the chief minister; (iii) a nominee of the chairman, University Grants Commission; (iv) a nominee of the State Government; and (v) a nominee of the chairman, West Bengal State Council of Higher Education.”
Calls, text messages and emails to the chancellor failed to elicit any response.
“A case has been filed in Calcutta High Court contesting the inclusion of the chief minister’s nominee which, the petitioner has alleged, is bad in law,” a university official said.
The search committee before the promulgation of the ordinance comprised nominees of the concerned university, the chancellor and the higher education department.
Calls and text messages to education minister Bratya Basu went unanswered.
Sanatan Chattopadhyay, secretary of the Calcutta University Teachers’ Association, said: “Campuses are facing an academic and administrative deadlock in the absence of full-term VCs.”
