‘Anna University Syndicate ignored Anandakumar Committee report’

Panel was tasked with probing recruitment irregularities

11/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, COIMBATORE

The Anna University Syndicate, which favoured retaining the services of 135 teaching and non-teaching staff, who were appointed in gross violation of norms, ignored the recommendations of the Committee headed by IAS officer Anandakumar.

The committee was the last to be set up by the Higher Education Department to probe irregularities in the recruitment made in the erstwhile five Anna Universities of Technology, which were established during the DMK regime.

The Syndicate had based its decision on the recommendations of two other panels — the Priya Balakrishnan Committee and the Muthusamy Committee, which had submitted their findings prior to the constitution of the Anandakumar Committee, sources in the university said on Tuesday.

The sources said that at a meeting last year, Vice-Chancellor M.K. Surappa had placed before the Syndicate the findings of all the committees. However, the Syndicate selectively chose to go by the recommendations of the Priya Balakrishnan Committee and the Muthusamy Committee and recommend that the 135 persons be retained.

While all the committee reports were official, not all of them came up with the correct findings.

It was the Anandakumar Committee that pointed out how candidates who did not possess the right qualifications were appointed as teachers in violation of norms and the communal roster system, the sources said.