Senior former teachers of AU writes open letter to VC

ALLAHABAD: A group of former senior teachers of Allahabad University have written an open letter to the varsity Vice Chancellor Prof Ratan Lal Hangloo, asking him to apologies for his remarks made against them during a function, recently.

The letter has been jointly signed by senior teachers including VC Pandey, M C Chatopadhay, A K Srivastava, U N Rai, R C Tripathi and Ranjna Kakkar. The letter mentions that Prof Hangloo, speaking at a function organised recently at the department of Music, had passed defamatory remarks on them and had held them responsible for the declining image of AU.

The teachers have appealed to the VC to conduct an introspection and find out the reason why AU is losing its sheen over the years. "AU has climbed down from 68 position in NIRF ranking (2016), released by the President's office every year, to 95 in 2017, 144 in 2018 and this year, AU do not feature in the top 200 universities of the country", says the letter.

The teachers have also raised their concern over the falling law and order situation on the campus and in the hostels. They have also cited the incidents wherein the Allahabad High Court has passed strict comment against the AU on different issues.

The teachers, apart from asking the VC to take back his words have also invited him for an open debate at any public forum in the city if he thinks the former teachers are somehow responsible for the downfall of AU.

Talking to TOI, AU PRO Chitranjan Kumar said, “There is no truth in the allegations levelled by these former teachers who are nothing but a caucus of 7 to 8 former teachers who have been involved in financial irregularities and are in habit of misguiding the society at large by circulating such emotional letter which does not hold any ground”.