Retirement benefits of at least 10 profs stalled by 

Madras univ

Siddharth Prabhakar

Chennai





The absence of a vice-chancellor at the University of Madras is not only affecting students, but also many administrative decisions. Retirement benefits of around 10 professors have been delayed by three to seven months as the administrative wing has demanded documents dating back to more than 25 years for completing the formalities.

Higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal, who is the convenor of the three-member vice-chancellor convenor committee, stepped in last week and ordered the administrative wing of the University to ensure that the benefits are released as soon as possible.

Some of the professors whose retirement benefits are stalled have been heads of department (HoD) as well as syndicate members and have served the University for more than 25 years. “They have had illustrious careers, but at the fag end they are being harassed. The least that can be done is to release their pension benefits at the earliest,“ said a senior syndicate member cum professor.

In a few cases, the administrative section demanded official documents dating to the early nineties, for verification. “The University of Madras wants to verify all these details months after the professors have retired and not when they were being given increments all these years,“ the syndicate member said.

A section of professors made a representation regarding this to Paliwal last week. “The secretary gave a strongly worded oral order that the processing of such files should not take months, but should be finished within a week,“ a source in the administrative wing of the University said.

The University is without a VC since January 2016, when the incumbent R Thandavan left office. The posts of controller of examinations and registrar have also been lying vacant for a few months.

Currently , professors S Karunanidhi and M Srinivasan, who are HoDs of the psychology and criminology departments respectively, have been put in charge of these posts. This has further strained the procedures at the University , say professors.

The University cannot float appointment advertisements for both these posts without a VC, say officials.The selection of the VC in turn depends on the threemember search panel, which is yet to submit names to the governor-chancellor.