The Association of Kerala Government College Teachers (AKGCT) has demanded the removal of Calicut University Vice-Chancellor M. Abdul Salam and the nominated Syndicate in the wake of the Thrissur Vigilance Court pulling them up for allotment of varsity land to private trusts.
The association general secretary S. Sudarsanan Pillai in a press release issued here charged the Vice-Chancellor with appeasing his political masters ever since he assumed office.
By his actions he had sabotaged the democratically elected Syndicate, Senate and Academic Council of the university, he said.
The Vice-Chancellor, in cahoots with a nominated syndicate, handed over the university land valued at crores of rupees to different trusts and associations, he alleged.
Mr. Pillai, who also submitted a petition to Governor Sheila Dikshit, said that she should take steps to remove the Vice-Chancellor if he was reluctant to quit.
The Thrissur Vigilance Court had pointed out that higher officials of the governing body of the university had perpetrated serious lapses. It was acting on petitions filed by T.K. Narayanan, former registrar of Calicut University.
The court had said that “the persons involved are the top brass of the ruling front. It seems that the first respondent who is occupying the pivotal and respectable post of Vice-Chancellor was playing second fiddle to his mentors. ”
Previously the court had ordered an investigation against more than 70 people including the State president of the Indian Union of Muslim League (IUML) Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal, Ministers P.K. Abdu Rabb, M.K. Muneer, the Vice-Chancellor and K.M. Shaji, MLA. The petitioner had alleged corruption in allotment of 73 acres of land to private trusts led by IUML leaders and their relatives.
