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Bihar’s largest university crippled by ad hocism
In a first, Bihar’s largest varsity, Magadh University (MU) at Bodh Gaya, which is spread across five districts, has all its four key positions — that of vice chancellor (VC), pro-vice chancellor, registrar and finance officer — under additional charge while incumbent VC Rajendra Prasad remains on medical leave ever since vigilance raids were carried out at his office and Gorakhpur residence over five months ago in a case of alleged financial irregularities, officials said.
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In a first, Bihar’s largest varsity, Magadh University (MU) at Bodh Gaya, which is spread across five districts, has all its four key positions — that of vice chancellor (VC), pro-vice chancellor, registrar and finance officer — under additional charge while incumbent VC Rajendra Prasad remains on medical leave ever since vigilance raids were carried out at his office and Gorakhpur residence over five months ago in a case of alleged financial irregularities, officials said.
The latest resignation at MU has come from pro-VC Vibhuti Nayan Singh. “I have quit as it was not possible for me to continue anymore,” said Singh, who was also the acting VC until Pataliputra University (Patna) VC RK Singh was given additional charge of MU.
In a letter to the incumbent acting VC, Vibhuti Nayan Singh dismissed the charges against him of “not discharging duties properly” and accusing the former of “unilaterally trying to coerce the committee to take decisions as per his wishes”. The acting VC had, on April 20, written to the P-VC and the latter responded immediately with rebuttal and resignation, saying that even during the two-month period as acting VC, he did not have any decision-making power, as per the Raj Bhawan directive to all acting VCs.
Raj Bhawan accepted Vibhuti Narayan Singh’s resignation on Friday and handed over additional charge to Munger University P-VC Jawahar Lal until further orders.
Apart from the pro-VC, the finance officer (FO) of MU, Satya Ratan Prasad, also quit. Registrar PK Verma is already in jail in connection with a case of alleged irregularities.
“In Bihar, officers holding additional charge of 2-3 departments is a common practice, but now it is rampant in universities with all top administrative posts. It is high time the finances of universities are regulated to stem the rot and allow genuine teachers to focus on academics and vie for the top academic posts. This will also end rampant ad hocism. In the last two decades, there has been no regular appointment through advertisement for the posts of registrar, controller of exams, deputy registrar, assistant registrar, chief librarian and librarian etc. in the state universities despite laid down process and prescribed pay as per UGC guidelines,” said Federation of University Teachers’ Associations Bihar (FUTAB) working president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha.
At present, the VCs of BRA Bihar University (Muzaffarpur), Pataliputra University (Patna), LN Mithila University (Darbhanga) and Nalanda Open University (Patna) have additional charge of JP University (Chapra), MU (Bodh Gaya), Aryabhatt Knowledge University (Patna) and Veer Kuer Singh University (Ara). AKU has been without a regular VC for nearly one and half years, while its tri-furcation process to create new engineering and medical universities is also underway.
