UAS teachers set15-day deadline for removal of Vice- Chancellor

They also seek fulfillment of their other long-pending demands

January 28, 2022 08:09 pm | Updated 08:09 pm IST - HUBBALLI

TheAssociation of Teacher Welfare, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad (ATWUASD), has set a 15-day deadline for meeting its long-pending demands and warned that it will resume the agitation if the demands are not met.

Addressing presspersons in Hubballi on Friday, association president Sunil R. Karikatti, vice-president Ravi Patil, secretary Mahantesh Nayak and executive committee member Manjula M. said that university vice-chancellor Mahadev Chetti is violating statutes with impunity and has lost his moral right to continue in the post as he is an accused in a criminal case. “We demand that the Governor and the Government sack him immediately to protect the dignity of the university,” they said.

Elaborating on the various illegalities said to have been committed by the vice-chancellor, Mr. Nayak said that whether it is recruitment of officers, assigning officers for in-charge duty, appointment of registrar, administrative staff, re-employment of retired personnel or any other issue related to the teaching and non-teaching staff, Prof. Chetti has violated rules, regulations and statutes.

“For the first time we are forced to go on an agitation because of this blatant misuse of power. After 14 days of peaceful agitation, the Governor himself visited the protest site and promised to resolve the pending issues related to the promotion and other benefits of the staff. After holding a meeting with us, the Governor has written to the vice- chancellor to immediately take steps to resolve the issues and fulfill our demands. But till date nothing has happened,” he said.

Prof. Sunil Karikatti said that because of lack of appointments, the University was now functioning with only 50% of the sanctioned posts and the teaching staff was handling additional responsibilities in the interest of the students and university. However because of the abuse of power and blatant violations by the Vice Chancellor the ranking of the university had gone down 9th to 17th position, he said.

Criminal case

He said that amid all these illegalities, following an order of the District and Sessions Court in Dharwad, issued on January 1 , 2022, Mr. Chetti and his wife have been named as accused in a criminal case. The Governor and the State Government should immediately consider it seriously and sack him to save the reputation of the prestigious institution, he demanded.

Mr. Patil said that the teachers will be once again approaching the Governor, the Higher Education Minister and the Chief Minister seeking immediate action against the vice-chancellor and also in connection with their long-pending demands. “We will wait for 15 days for the competent authorities to act. If nothing happens, we will resume our agitation,” he said.

To a query, he said that they are still waiting for the visit of the Principal Secretary of the department which was announced during the legislature session. “If the Principal Secretary wants us to meet him, we will go and air our grievances before him. We want our genuine demands fulfilled,” he said.

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