Bangalore University (BU) Vice-Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev wants police security so that he can work at his office on the Jnana Bharathi campus.
In a press statement in the wake of a slew of protests against his seven-week absence from his office, the VC said: “I am ready to be in that office even now if the Government assures me safe passage.”
Protest
The campus has become a site of protests with over 100 members of the Postgraduate and Research Students' Forum and Non-Teaching Staff Association holding a rally against the “unhealthy trends in BU” on Wednesday. Apart from the “VC's autocratic and un-academic attitude”, damaged roads, water supply and sanitation problems, lack of canteens, poor hostel facilities, maintenance of computer labs and libraries, lack of transparency in Ph.D. entrance exams and irregular payment of scholarships to below poverty line (BPL) students, were among the list of complaints the protesters submitted in a memorandum to Registrar (Administration) B.C. Mylarappa.
Vitiated atmosphere
Dr. Prabhu Dev said: “Over the last month and a half, an atmosphere of hate and intolerance is pervading the campus. Some students and few staff members, mostly non-teaching, have been instigated to stage dharnas in front of my office on an almost daily basis. The whole exercise seems to have been planned to destabilise me.”
Reacting to the continued speculation over his absence, he said it is not important where he functions from, but how he functions. “BU has three campuses — one at Central College which is the original campus, second at the Jnana Bharathi campus, and one at Kolar PG Centre. [Rules] do not prescribe any office for the VC to function from. Previously, I used to function in the morning session from the office of JB campus and for the rest of the day from Central College. Now I am working from Central College as we had to prepare a major project presentation along with a few professors before the University Grants Commission for the award of University with Potential for Excellence,” he explained.
