Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Baby refutes charges

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Education Minister M.A. Baby said here on Tuesday that the criticisms raised against him by the Vice-Chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit and reiterated by Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy were unfounded.

In a statement, the Minister said that Vice-Chancellor K.S. Radhakrishnan had raised three allegations against the office of the Education Minister who was also the Pro-Chancellor of the university. The first was about the vigilance inquiry ordered against the Vice-Chancellor. The Finance Inspection Wing at the Secretariat had detected various instances of corruption in the university. Its report mentioned the Vice-Chancellor.

The vigilance inquiry was ordered after the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university and appointing authority of the Vice-Chancellor, applied his mind. The inquiry was legal and would be continued only with the consent of the High Court, as a case was pending before it.

Mr. Baby said the government had done nothing harmful to Dr. Radhakrishnan regarding his application for voluntary retirement from government service on December 9, 2008. The government asked the Vice-Chancellor on July 16 to apply to the appointing authority as he had sought retirement as Vice-Chancellor.

Dr. Radhakrishnan was on deputation from government service as Vice-Chancellor. He could retire from government service only after resigning as Vice-Chancellor and re-entering government service. He still has four months to apply, according to the rules, Mr. Baby said.

The Minister said there had been no deliberate attempt from the part of the government to deny Dr. Radhakrishnan an opportunity to present a paper at a seminar in Seoul from July 30 to August 5. He said that the UDF had taken up the issue for political reasons.

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