Several faculty members of the Central University of Rajasthan have come out openly against the Vice-Chancellor and the university administration, alleging impropriety in financial dealings and appointments at the university. They have now sought the intervention of the Union HRD ministry and President Pranab Mukherjee, who is the Visitor of central universities, in the matter.
The Central University of Rajasthan Teacher’s Association has also sent out a dossier containing evidence of the alleged corruption to the Prime Minister’s Office, the CBI, the Central Vigilance Commission, the UGC and the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau. Vice-Chancellor A K Pujari rubbished the allegations levelled by the professors, calling it an attempt borne out of personal vendetta.
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The dossier, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, accuses Pujari of being “dictatorial and authoritarian”, listing out several alleged instances of favouritism and financial irregularities involving the V-C and certain other faculty members.
The document bears the names of eight faculty members — all members of the teacher’s association — its president R L Meena, Vice President Mamta Rani, General Secretary Sanjay Arora, Joint Secretary Sanjay Kumar, Treasurer Akhil Agrawal and Executive Members Avantika Singh, Surendra Nimesh and Hemlata Manglani. However, it bears the signatures of only the four main office bearers. The CURTA has also accused the university administration of wrongly altering the results of 232 students last year.
“(We seek) the intervention of President and Visitor (to the university) Pranab Mukherjee for conducting an inquiry… into the irregularities taking place under Vice-Chancellor Prof A K Pujari,” the cover letter to the President reads.
“Sir, you will be shocked to know that the V-C does not meet representatives of students, teachers and employees and (has) shut down all democratic functioning (institutions) of the varsity. His short tenure has witnessed an unprecedented collapse of an institution which has built a name for itself in a short span,” the letter says.
The CURTA’s dossier accuses Pujari of statutory violations, “blatant nepotism”, academic erosion, harassment of a Dalit scholar and a “paralysed grievance redressal mechanism. It also alleges misappropriation of public money, malpractices in administration by the acting V-C and ex-registrar of the university between March 2014 to May 2015.
Pujari, however, said the association did not reflect the opinion of all faculty members.
“After receiving (said) document, I called all the teachers. They denied that the matter has any mandate of the teacher’s association. The meeting concluded that four teachers have acted (in their) individual capacity without taking CURTA into confidence,” Pujari told The Indian Express.
“Nevertheless, it was decided that the matter be examined by a (four-member) committee… (which will) give its report shortly… The teachers agreed that sending the complaint unilaterally without GBM of CURTA discussing it and sending it to an outside agency without giving university (a chance) to respond is highly irregular behaviour (on part of) these individual teachers,” he added.
Vice-Chancellor A K Pujari called the allegations an attempt borne out of personal vendetta.
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