Nomination of an unqualified person to the seventh Executive Council of the Visvesvaraya Technological University by the Governor and Chancellor of VTU has raised eyebrows in the university’s academic circles.
The Governor has reconstituted the Executive Council, effective November 11, even as the council completed its term on November 14. But the nomination of K.M. Jagadeesha of the Department of Automobile Engineering, PES College of Engineering, Mandya, seems to be in violation of Section 3(e) of the VTU Act 1994 specifying on who could be members of the Executive Council.
Section 3(e) explicitly states that five representatives of constituent colleges not below the rank of Principal/Professor to be nominated by the Chancellor on the recommendations of the Vice-Chancellor.
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However, Dr. Jagadeesha’s designation is Associate Professor and not Professor, a senior officer from PES College told
He was serving as Assistant Professor and had been promoted as Associate Professor recently, the officer said.
However, when asked, VTU Vice-Chancellor Karisiddappa said that Dr. Jagadeesha’s designation had been mentioned as “Professor” in his bio-data.
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“I will check, if there is a mistake about his designation, then we will withdraw his nomination,” he said.
The following is the list of 13 persons representing industry/business, trade/educational experts in the field of engineering/architecture and engineering professions, including one each from SCs/STs, BCs and religious minorities.
Prof. Karisiddappa is the Chairman, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, and Director of Technical Education are ex-officio members, and VTU Registrar H.N. Jaganatha Reddy will function as Secretary of the Executive Council.
The other members are: K. Vijaykumar, Sirguppa in Ballari district, A.R.B. Venkatesh Satish, Bengaluru, Vijaykumar D. Kuchanure, Belagavi, Veershetty Mange, Bidar, Sanjeev Kubakaddi, Girisagar of Bilgi taluk in Bagalkot district, S.B. Kivade, Principal, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan, Bidar district, M.S. Shivakumar, former VTU Registrar and Professor, Department of CSE, Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysuru, Krishna Venkatesh, Director, Centre for Incubation, Innovation, Research and Consultancy, Jyothi Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, and C.N. Chandrappa, Professor and Head, Department of Automobile Engineering, Acharya Institute of Technology, Bengaluru.