A day after two members of the Madurai Kamaraj University Vice Chancellor’s Search Committee informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that the convenor of the panel had forced them to include P.P. Chellathurai’s name in the shortlist, Higher Education Minister K.P. Anbalagan denied the same.
According to Mr. Anbalagan, there was no pressure on the search committee and it had voluntarily recommended a shortlist of three names to the Governor-Chancellor, who in turn called all the three and held a personal interview before appointing Mr. Chellathurai for the top academic job.
On the sidelines of a conference on automation of library resources, Mr. Anbalagan told reporters that since two members of the committee had gone to court, there was nothing further to say. To a question on whether the government was considering action against the committee members for their contradictory views, he said action would be considered after the court verdict was received.
‘Solution on NEET soon’
As for the continuing problem with medical admission which was affecting students’ chances in other professional courses, the minister said the government was following in the footsteps of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and making all efforts to exempt the State from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. “In a couple of days, we will have a solution for this issue,” he told media persons.
To a question on whether there would be entrance exams for engineering admission next year, Mr. Anbalagan said there was no such proposal from the Centre. Also, the government was making all preparations for online counselling from next year to prevent lapse of seats as had happened this year, he said.
When asked why the department would not conduct a second round of counselling for lapsed seats as was done for medicine, he said it takes a month for engineering counselling unlike medicine which had only a few thousand seats. “Already, the process is delayed; we should have started classes on August 1,” he pointed out.