In what will probably be a litmus test for Bangalore University (BU) Vice-Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev, the Bangalore University Non-Teaching Staff SC/ST Association has filed a complaint against him on the grounds of “atrocities against Scheduled Caste/Tribe (SC/ST) communities”. The complaint was lodged at the Jnanabharathi police station here on Friday.
According to members of the association, the complaint was filed a day after university engineer N. Puttaswamy allegedly suffered a heart attack after Dr. Prabhu Dev “ verbally abused” him for delaying the issue of work order to the contractor for the construction of the remaining buildings at the Kolar Postgraduate (PG) Centre.
“The university engineer had promptly followed the directions of the Syndicate meeting that asked him to issue the work order on February 22. Still, he was accused of negligence of duty. This is not the first time. The varsity has seen several instances of injustice towards minorities. It is not our aim to see the Vice-Chancellor behind bars. We want him to refrain from acts that are causing mental harassment to the varsity's staff,” said P. Shivappa, president of the association.
When contacted, Dr. Prabhu Dev maintained that he knew nothing about the complaint or about Mr. Puttaswamy's heart attack. When asked whether the university engineer's ill-health will affect the March 15 inauguration of the Kolar PG Centre, he said, “I can comment only after I get more information about it tomorrow.”
Panel rejected
Meanwhile, the Dr. Prabhu Dev suffered another setback. A new committee that he had constituted to accelerate the construction work on the Kolar PG Centre to meet the March 15 deadline has been rejected by Syndicate members.
