Thursday, February 8, 2018

DVAC sleuths question Bharathiar univ officials

tnn | Updated: Feb 8, 2018, 00:08 IST

Coimbatore: Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths on Wednesday interrogated Bharathiar University officials for the first time since the arrest of vice-chancellor A Ganapathi.
The interrogation, which lasted less than an hour and conducted by DVAC DSP Rajesh Kumar, pertained to extraction of bribe from assistant professor T Suresh. Other charges against Ganapathi will be examined in the following days, university sources told TOI.

The DVAC team turned up at the university in the afternoon and went to the office of registrar B Vanitha. They left the varsity barely an hour later. While senior university authorities were tight-lipped about the investigation, sources said that the sleuths have sought more information related to the appointments made by Ganapathi.

The visit comes in the wake of allegations that there were attempts by staff close to Ganapathi to destroy documents, which could possibly bring to light more incidents of corruption in the varsity.

Meanwhile, the first syndicate meeting of the university since Ganapathi's arrest will be held on the campus on Thursday. K K Suresh, professor and head of the department of statistics, has been deputed to convene the meeting, said the registrar. "The decision was taken at a meeting in the university on Wednesday afternoon," said Vanitha.

Usually, in the absence of the VC, a seniormost professor is named to officiate the university proceedings, Vanitha said. "Professor Suresh will oversee the convening of the syndicate meeting on Thursday. In the meeting, a decision to form a convener committee, which would run the university, would be taken. The meeting will be headed by the secretary to the department of higher education, Sunil Paliwal," she said.

Sources in the syndicate said the members were planning to raise the issue of increasing the retirement age of the principals of self-financing colleges to 65. A source said Ganapathi, in a syndicate meeting held last year, had increased the age of retirement of the principals of self-financing colleges, violating a government order, which says the age of retirement should be 62.

Earlier, members of the Association of University Teachers had sent a letter bringing the issue to the notice of the secretary of the higher education department. They said the retirement age was a policy decision of the state government and the syndicate had no powers to alter it.

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