PM may skip ISC, ex-Senate member lodges complaint against varsity VC

Nagpur: Amid indications of Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipping the 108th Indian Science Congress’s (ISC) inaugural ceremony on Tuesday, former senate member Manmohan Bajpai has lodged a complaint against Nagpur University vice chancellor SR Chaudhari over alleged violations of norms.
NU sources said the PM may remotely inaugurate the ISC on January 3. “PM’s security officials are conspicous by their absence at the campus. As they haven’t arrived even three days before the event, it is a given that he is likely to skip the inauguration in-person,” they said.
Traditionally, the PM has been inaugurating the ISC. This is the third occasion when NU is playing host for the grand event.
However, it may be the first time when an ISC host has been mired is controversies right from the start, officials said.
“The vice chancellor has violated many sections of the Universities Act by taking wrong decisions at the administrative level and has tarnished the image of the university. Due to illegal decisions of the VC, students, professors, and employees of the university have been forced to go to high court. That’s why you are requested to kindly take immediate cognizance of this matter,” Bajpai’s 1000-word letter reads.
The former senate member also cited examples of VC's questionable decisions in his complaint on the PMO portal.
The complaint also stated the VC’s stoic silence and delayed response in the alleged extortion bid on seven heads of the departments by former mass communication department head Dharmesh Dhawankar. The VC was compelled to initiate action against Dhawankar only after intervention of deputy chairman of legistative council Neelam Gorhe. Dhawankar has been sent on compulsory leave till January 7.
“As the VC sat on the complaint of aggrieved professors against the recovery of money, the entire episode reached the media and the university was defamed. Had the VC acted in time, the university would have been saved of all the bad press,” Bajpai’s letter stated.
Bajpai also complained about the illegal tree felling in the name of preparations for the Indian Science Congress. TOI had reported how the NU’s garden department went on felling many trees without permission.
The list of complaints included repeated strictures passed by the high court against Chaudhari over his illegal acts, assigning contracts of exam and civil work in violation of norms and shielding the accused in a case of alleged sexual harassment.