The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has sought vigilance clearance from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) after Vice-Chancellor Ramakrishna Ramaswamy requested the President of India (also the varsity Chancellor) to allow him to demit his office.
The vigilance officer has reportedly sent a note on the V-C on Thursday that no enquiry is pending. The resignation process will start once this report of the officer, who is a professor from the university, is received by the HRD Ministry. “It is a normal procedure before any V-C demits his office and nothing much could be read into it,” said a few teachers, unwilling to be quoted. Though there have been allegations against a few of his administrative decisions, there are no charges on the financial front, they explained.
However, a section of teachers claimed that the V-C’s responses to questions raised against certain decisions were “not convincing”. Huge money spent on refurbishing the V-C’s official residence and “deviating” from the EC meetings decisions are some of the allegations made by this group of teachers.
In fact, the V-C’s decision to demit his office was being discussed for over a month in the varsity circles and he also happens to be the first one to leave the office before the term ended as one more year to go. The precise reasons, however, are not known for his resignation though the V-C himself told the senior faculty that it was due to wife’s ill-health. His resignation has opened up a debate on the campus on who would continue with teachers divided. A section of teachers wants the senior most professor of the university be given the post but another section wants the pro-VC should be automatically given the responsibility as per the University Act. Clarity is likely to emerge only when the resignation is officially accepted.
