news details |
|
|
| BGSBU: Where none dares to correct the wrong! | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 5: Breaching norms for personal reasons and granting undue and illegal extensions to the Vice-Chancellors and other blue-eyed intellectuals and so-called opinion makers has been the hallmark of Chief MInister Omar Abdullah led National Conference (NC)-Congress coalition government.
A fitting case of this administrative inability and political silliness is the lingering case of appointment of Vice-Chancellor of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU). Present Vice-Chancellor Masud Choudhary's extended term expired in September 2009 and even after an year, Jammu and Kashmir government has been unable to find his successor.
If the sources in the state government are to be believed, Chief MInister does not want to annoy New Delhi, whose blessings and patronage the present vice-chancellor reportedly enjoys. Apart from New Delhi, historic Gujjar-Pahari divide is another factor which is working in present VC's favour. Had this Gujjar-Pahari divide not been there, Choudhary would have been sacked immediately after he ordered brute use of force on the peacefully agitating engineering students in June this year.
Sources said that not only proximity with Congress high command but also the illogical decision of Jammu and Kashmir government to send Pahari leader Shabir Khan to inquire into happenings inside the BGBSU campus prevented Choudhary from being ousted. The Gujjar leaders joined hands and in one voice termed the brute use of force on peacfully agitating students as conspiracy against the university which was being headed by a Gujjar Vice-Chancellor.
Sources in the state government maintain that Masood Choudhary's first tenure after being appointed as Vice-Chancellor of BGBSU in 2004 ended in September 2007 and thereafter, for his proximity with the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, he was granted two years of extension. It needs to be mentioned here that Chief Minister is Chancellor of BGBSU unlike other universities of Jammu and Kashmir where the Chancellor is Governor.
Armed with the powers to appoint, extend or curtail tenure of the VC of BGBSU, Azad government granted Choudhary two year extension. The extension period also ended in September 2009 and under the act, VC of BGBSU cannot be granted any further extension. However, there is clause in the act which says that the present vice-chancellor would continue till the appointment of his sucessor.
Taking advantage of this clause, Choudhary continues to be VC of BGBSU. Interestingly, Jammu and Kashmir government did initiate a staggered process for the appointment of new Vice-Chancellor. It framed a selection committee consisting of chancellor's representatives as its head, a UGC member and two members to be nominated by university's executive council.
Chief MInister appointed Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) S.L.Bhat as the chairman of selection committee while the UGC named Syeda Hameed as their representative. Sources said that to complete the committee, BGBSU had to nominate two members from its executive council. They added that since choudhary himself headed the executive council, he did not process the file and delayed the entire process in a designed manner.
Sources added that finding no way out, VC convened the meeting of executive council of university wherein decision was taken to nominate senior National Conference (NC) leader Mohammed Yousuf Taing and Salman Haider as members of the selection panel. They disclosed that being a close friend of Choudhary, Taing reportedly skipped several meetings of the selection panel headed by S.L.Bhat.
Though Taing issued several clarifications in the print and electronic media over the issue but it has been reliably learnt that it was he who played vital role in government allowing Masud Choudhary to serve beyond his legal tenure as VC of BGBSU. Irked over too much politicisation of the selection process, sources said that chairman of selection panel S.L.Bhat pleaded with government to relieve him of this additional assignment.
Bhat finally resigned from the committee in the beginning of 2010. Jammu and Kashmir immediatly appointed Mohammed Shafi Pandit as Chairman of the selection panel. Sources said that the panel has met met once at New Delhi and if the politics does not play its part, they are meeting once more for finalizing the panel for VC which would then be submitted to Chief Minister for finalization.
The names which are being considered for the post of vice-chancellor of BGBSU include that of Prof. Ayaz Rasool Nazki, Prof. Nisar Ganai and Prof. Irshad Hamal. Whether the selection panel is able to finalize the name of VC for BGBSU this year or not but the fact remains that Jammu and Kashmir government has been unable to come out of administrative inability and political mechanisations. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
