Madurai Kamaraj Univ search committee member quits

Madurai: With the resignation of Mu Ramaswamy on Friday as a member of the search committee constituted to recommend a panel of three names to the governor for appointment of vice-chancellor (VC) to the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), the selection process has come to a standstill.
Ramaswamy on February 11 addressed his letter tendering his resignation to the registrar (in-charge) of the MKU, copies of which were forwarded to the convener of the search committee C Murukadas and Harish L Mehta, another committee member.
"Stating irregularities in the functioning of the committee I sent letters twice to the Tamil Nadu governor who is the chancellor of the university. Also, I had levelled four charges against the convener of the search committee. But, there was no response from his (governor) side. Thus, I felt that I could not do my job with conscience and my presence in the committee would be meaningless. Thus, I resigned," Ramaswamy told TOI.
When MKU's former VC Kalyani Mathivanan's term came to end on April 8 last year, Ramaswamy was elected from MKU's senate and Harish L Mehta was elected from MKU's syndicate. It is said that there was a dispute in the committee regarding the number of applications received from the VC aspirants and the convener received applications even after the cut-off date.
"The last date for receiving the application was July 24. At first, it was said that totally 144 applications had come. Later, it was told that the number was 112, based on which we started our work. Suddenly, another application was taken up for consideration on October 10," said Ramaswamy.
"Besides, there was also a dispute pertaining to rankings to choose the candidates. But, the convener wanted the search committee members to suggest one name each, which I denied," said Ramaswamy.
When asked, Murukadas told TOI, "I did not receive any communication regarding Ramaswamy's resignation. If his resignation is true it is unfortunate because we have planned to convene a meeting on February 17 to finalise the task."
With Ramaswamy's resignation, the senate should nominate a new member to the committee as per provisions. "But, the present senate is not fully constituted as there are 15 vacancies, which needs to be filled with members elected from the registered graduate constituency," said Save Madurai Kamraj University Coalition convener, A Srinivasan.
Hence, authorities should speed up the election process without delay so that MKU would get its VC at the earliest," said the coalition's co-convener P Vijayakumar.
Meanwhile, many academicians welcomed Ramaswamy's resignation. "There have been widespread allegations that corruption is taking place in the appointments of VCs to universities. Now, Ramaswamy's resignation proves it and would help unearth corruption in appointments," said chairman of board of governors of IIT-Kanpur and former vice chancellor of Anna University (Chennai) M Anandakrishnan.