VC ousted, governor nominees on university committee face flak

It was believed that after then Mumbai Universi ty vice-chancellor San jay Deshmukh was di rected by governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to go on leave, he would quit.When he did not oblige, Rao had to relieve Deshmukh, who achieved the dubious distinction of being the first Mumbai University VC to be dismissed.

In July, Raj Bhavan officials had realized that there were problems in the varsity's examination section.

Rao had called chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, education minister Vinod Tawde and additional chief secretary Sitaram Kunte to probe the matter. Later, Shivaji University VC Devanand Shinde was given additional charge of the varsity.

Rao initiated several measures to redress grievances of students affected by non-declaration of results and other issues, but experts said it was high time to examine the roles of the governor's nominees on the varsity's statutory bodies, the Raj Bhavan secretariat, and higher and technical education department.

Raj Bhavan has an education cell to monitor the per formance of universities across the state.

There is an independent section in Mantralaya to review the performance of universities.

Rao will have to examine if there was dereliction of duty and why his nominees on the varsity's statutory bodies did not alert him on the state of affairs.

Moreover, despite Raj Bhavan directing Deshmukh to quit on September 24, he did not oblige and waited patiently for his dismissal.

Farm worries for CM

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had been left red-faced due to the tardy implementation of the loan waiver scheme due to the casual approach of senior bureaucrats in the cooperation and finance departments and officials associated with the state-level bankers' committee (SLBC).

For the first time, Fadnavis had to give an explanation to the PMO. When the demand to write off debt was raised during the state legislature's Budget session, Fadnavis said he was not in favour of the scheme. The Congress and NCP led by Ashok Cha general secretary Sachin Sawant raised doubts on the number of farmers and the amount. A month after Fadnavis found that the data released by the SLBC was wrong and that it was only 69 lakh farmers.

The SLBC, IT, cooperation and finance departments staffers had not taken care while compiling the data. The CM has agreed to fix the responsibility for the inept handling of the scheme.

ACB traps woman cop

Fadnavis was the first CM to ensure that a maximum number of women are inducted into the police force to bring in a sense of security .But a case registered by the Pune ACB has stunned the police force.

A probe into a rape case was entrusted to a woman in van and Ajit Pawar respectively had taken out a state-wide march to press for the demand, but Fadnavis did not budge. Later, he relented after UP CM Yogi Adityanath wrote off farmers' loans.

Fadnavis announced a Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver for 89 lakh farmers, but Congress was entrusted to a woman in Pune and the accused was arrested. The son of the accused later approached the woman sub-inspector and sought help for securing bail for his father.

He asked the official to draft a favourable report and offered a bribe of Rs 15,000.The man later approached the ACB and the sub-inspector was caught.