Measures to put AU back on track

MORE THAN six months after attaining the Central status, efforts to bring about a systematic change for the better seems to have finally begun at the Allahabad University . AU Vice-Chancellor Prof Rajen Harshe has formed 25 committees comprising of 54 teachers?all experts in their respective fields, to look into the various needs and problems of the university, under the new set-up and begun an exercise to put the varsity on a track of recovery.

V-C forms 25 panels to look into different issues

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MORE THAN six months after attaining the Central status, efforts to bring about a systematic change for the better seems to have finally begun at the Allahabad University (AU).

AU Vice-Chancellor Prof Rajen Harshe has formed 25 committees comprising of 54 teachers—all experts in their respective fields, to look into the various needs and problems of the university, under the new set-up and begun an exercise to put the varsity on a track of recovery.

The experts in the committees will be issued guidelines by the VC from time to time and they in turn will keep the VC updated about their efforts to redress the problems related to their area of expertise—a move that will hopefully help the varsity get its house in order.

Though AU became a Central University more than six months back, nothing changed on the ground except for a new VC at the helm of the affairs. So much so that critics had even started to term the scenario as "old wine in a new bottle".

However, it seems after coming to terms with the state of affairs at the varsity, the VC has finally decided to take a concrete step to improve the things by forming the committees, even though their exact role is yet to be made public by Prof Harshe.

Prof Harshe has convened an important and the very first meeting of the committee members on January 23 at 4 pm at the North Hall of the University's Senate Hall Campus. He is expected to reveal his strategy and spell out the role of the committees there.

Among the 25 committees formed by the VC are a six-member Research Council headed by Prof Janak Pandey and comprising of Prof PN Mehrotra, Prof DK Gupta, Prof UC Chattopadhyay, Prof Ranjana Prakash and Dr Shanthy Sundaram, a two-member Legal Matters Committee comprising of Prof HN Tiwari and Prof BP Singh and a single-member committee to look into Finance and Audit having Prof JN Mishra.

A two-member committee for Event Management comprising of Prof JN Bhargav and Dr AK Singhal, a four-member Discipline/ Grievance Committee comprising of Prof Jata Shankar, Prof MP Singh, Dr Mustaq Ali and Dr HK Singh, another four-member committee for Pedagogical Matters comprising of Prof Poonam C Mittal, Prof Smita Agarwal, Prof Krishna Gupta and Dr Geeta Watal have also been formed.

A four-member Library committee comprising of Prof NR Farooqi, Prof PK Khare, Prof Gauri Chattopadhyay, Dr Girish Kumar and Dr RP Budania, a two-member Sports Committee comprising of Prof RK Upadhyay and Dr Archana Chahal, a one member Garden Committee having Prof DK Chauhan, a single member committee for Guest House under Dr HK Kheri, a three-member Annual Report committee comprising of Prof KK Azad, Dr SI Rizvi and Dr Avinash C Pandey, a single-member Colleges Committee under Prof UC Srivastava, another single-member committee for Statistical Data under Prof Anoop Chaturvedi, a two-member committee for Essential Readings (text books and reading material) having Prof VM Baijal and Prof AK Mukherjee as well as a one-member committee for Courses under Prof AK Mittal have been formed by the VC.

Some of the other committees formed include one for Teaching and Research Interface having Prof PN Pandey, a three-member Career Counselling Committee comprising of Prof Indira Mehrotra, Dr RK Chaubey and Dr SMZ Khursheed, a committee for NSS under Dr Satya Deo, a two member Women Advisory Board Committee having Prof Alka Agarwal and Dr Ranjana Kakkar, a six member Cultural/Creative Activities Committee having Prof Sachin Tiwari, Prof AK Mukherjee, Prof Atiya Nishat Khan, Prof Arindam Chatterjee, Prof Sanjoy Dutta Roy and Prof Smita Agarwal, a committee for AU Website under Prof RR Tiwari, Dr AC Pandey and Prashant Agarwal, a committee for NCC, Disaster Management Group and Blood Group Data under Prof PK Ghosh and one committee for Differently Disabled under Dr Sanjeev Kumar.