A year after establishment, 4 Odisha varsities yet to have VCs

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 24:

While a year is about to elapse since the Odisha government in 2015 announced the establishment of four new universities in the state, it is yet to appoint regular Vice-Chancellors (VCs) to these universities.

Dilly-dallying on the part of the government in appointing VCs to these new universities-Ramadevi Women’s University, Khallikote Cluster University, Gangadhar Meher University and Open University has seriously affected the main objective behind the creation of these universities.

Neither has the syndicate bodies of these universities constituted nor do these have senate bodies.

Appointment of Officer on Special Duty (OSD) as a temporary measure has hindered the  development of these universities.

Prof Padmaja Mishra of Utkal University was appointed as the OSD of Ramadevi Women’s University, which was newly constituted in May 2015.

Similarly, Manmath Padhi of Berhampur University was appointed as the OSD of Khallikote Cluster University; Sudhanshu Sekhar Rath of Sambalpur University was appointed as the OSD of Gangadhar Meher University; Srikant Kumar Mohapatra, IGNOU’s Odisha office director, was appointed as the OSD for the state’s first Open University.

The Higher Education department had then said that the OSDs will be the acting VCs  of these universities till regular VCs are appointed. A year has elapsed since then, but VCs remain to be appointed.

While the role of the syndicate and the senate have an important role in the appointment of VCs, those remain to formed in some of these universities.

Six months back during a visit to Ramadevi Women’s University Higher Education Minister Pradip Panigrahi had announced that very soon VCs of the four universities will be selected after the constitution of  syndicate and senate bodies.

However, the minister’s statement remains to be implemented till date.

Since different committees for managing these universities are yet to be constituted, various activities like new appointments, the introduction of new courses and expansion of campuses have been hampered.

Further, terms of VCs of three more universities- Utkal University of Culture, Berhampur University, and Shree Jagannath Sanskrit University would end this year.