Ending a long wait, the Telangana government has appointed eight Vice-Chancellors for the State universities much to the joy of students, faculty and parents. The government chose a good number of retired professors to head the universities. The announcement, however, irked the High Court, which is hearing a petition on VCs’ appointment.
After a two year delay, the government issued orders for appointments of VCs for a tenure of three years on July 25, 2016. The appointments were made a few days before the commencement of the new academic calendar.
The oldest University, Osmania, got S Ramachandram, Professor of Computer Science & Engineering of the same university, as the new Vice-Chancellor. “I am confident that the 3rd Cycle of Accreditation will be fruitful and the university will achieve the highest score,” Prof.Ramachandram said.
Retired professors of Osmania University SV Satyanarayana(Telugu) and A. Venugopal Rao (Computer Science & Engineering) were appointed for Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, respectively. While P .Sambaiah, retired professor of Public Administration and Human Resource Management, Kakatiya University, Warangal, was appointed for Telugu University, Nizamabad . K Seetharama Rao, retired professor, was made the VC of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University. Professors B Raja Rathnam and Sayanna were appointed for Palamuru and Kakatiya Universities respectively.
The government made it clear that the appointments will only take place after the verdict of the High Court. To placate the High Court, the State government submitted that the situation in the Universities is chaotic and the state was compelled to appoint the VCs. The High Court reportedly questioned the state as to why it couldn’t wait for just two days for the verdict after having waited for two long years.
The High Court is hearing a petition filed by a retired professor D Manohar Rao of Osmania University challenging the removal of minimum qualification for the VCs and taking away the powers of the Governor in this regard. Professor D Manohar Rao’s main concern seems to be that not following the regulations of UGC would only pave the way for the appointment of MLS and MPS as the Vice-Chancellors, which is undesirable. When the High Court asked about the same issue, the State government reassured that it wouldn’t happen.