Congress Slams KCR For Not Appointing Regular VCs

The Telangana Congress has strongly condemned Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for appointing IAS officers as in-charge Vice Chancellors for eight universities in Telangana.

"The State government should have appointed regular Vice Chancellors with full charge instead of appointing in-charge VCs. To make things worse, the Chief Minister has assigned the job to IAS officers instead of roping in experienced academicians," Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said.

Reddy accused the Chief Minister of not giving due importance to higher education, especially the universities. He said that it was highly condemnable that the Chief Minister was treating universities as mere departments which could be handled by IAS officers on a part-time basis. The Vice-Chancellor of a university needed to handle many academic and affiliated college-related affairs on a daily basis. Thus, an IAS officer, who would already be handling other key departments in the government, wouldn't be able to do justice to the new assignment, he said.

The Congress leader pointed out that the VC posts in seven universities fell vacant on July 24 while the positions in the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (KGUKT) in Basar, the Sathavahana University in Karimangar and the Mahatama Gandhi University in Nalgonda had been lying vacant for a long time.

"KCR should have initiated the process of appointment of full-fledged Vice-Chancellors well in advance instead of appointing in-charge VCs in the last minute," he said, adding that the appointment of in-charge VCs was an indication that the Chief Minister might delay the appointment of new VCs for a long time.

Reddy said that KCR had been neglecting the universities in the State ever since he became the Chief Minister in 2014. He said that universities were deprived of funds and no efforts were made to fill the vacancies. A majority of the sanctioned posts in all the State universities were lying vacant, he claimed. There had been no revision of pay-scales or other benefits for the staff, either, he added.

"Leakage of question papers, errors in the correction of answer sheets and discrepancies in the declaration of results have become the order of the day in Telangana. The situation is so bad that nearly 60% of the seats have remained vacant in degree courses, and the enrolment in other courses is at historic lows," he said.

"KCR's continuous neglect of universities and the welfare of students has become so obvious that today the Chief Minister is unable to step into any university without expecting protests from the staff and students. The TRS government has systematically ruined the entire higher education system. There are no funds and no staff, and soon there will be no students in most of the courses in the State's universities," he said.

Reddy demanded that the Chief Minister immediately appoint experienced and qualified academicians as full-fledged Vice-Chancellors of State Universities, fill all vacant posts and release sanctioned funds for all universities in Telangana.