Congress Slams KCR For Not Appointing Regular VCs For State Universities

Hyderabad, July 25 (Maxim News): Congress party strongly condemned Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao for appointing IAS officers as in-charge Vice Chancellors for eight universities in Telangana State.

“State Government should have appointed regular Vice Chancellors with full charge instead of appointing in-charge VCs. Further, the Chief Minister has assigned the job to IAS officers instead of roping in experienced academicians,” Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said in a media statement on Thursday.

Narayana Reddy accused the Chief Minister of not giving due importance to higher education, especially the Universities. He said it was highly condemnable that the Chief Minister was treating Universities as mere departments which could be handled by IAS officers on part time basis. The Vice-Chancellor of a university needs to handle many academic and affiliated college-related affairs on a daily basis. Therefore, an IAS officer, who is already handling other key departments in the government, cannot do justice with the new assignment, he said.

Congress leader pointed out that the VC post in seven universities fell vacant on July 24 while the positions in Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (KGUKT) in Basar and Satavahana University in Karimangar and Mahatama Gandhi University in Nalgonda have been lying vacant for a long time. “KCR should have initiated the process of appointment of full-fledged Vice-Chancellors well in advance instead of appointing Incharge VCs,” he said while adding that the appointment of Incharge VCs was an indication that the Chief Minister might delay the appointment of new VCs for a long time.

He said that KCR has been neglecting the State Universities ever since he became the Chief Minister in 2014. He said universities were deprived of funds and no efforts were made to fill the vacancies. “KCR’s continuous neglect of universities and the welfare of students has become so obvious that today that the Chief Minister is unable to step into any university without expecting protest from the staff and students. TRS Government has systematically ruined the entire higher education system. There are no funds, no staff and soon there will be no students in most of the courses in State universities,” he said.

Congress leader alleged that majority of sanctioned posts in all State universities were lying vacant. There has been no revision of pay-scales or other benefits for the staff. “Leakage of question papers, errors in correction of answer sheets and discrepancies in declaration of results has become order of the day in Telangana. Situation so worse that nearly 60% seats remained vacant in Degree courses while the enrolment in other courses in different universities is at its historic low,” he said.

Reddy demanded that the Chief Minister immediately appoint experienced and qualified academicians as full-fledged Vice-Chancellors of State Universities, fill all vacant posts and release sanctioned funds for all Universities in Telangana. (Maxim News)