In a dramatic series of events, senior Tezpur University professor Dhruba Kumar Bhattacharyya has “assumed charge” as Acting Vice-Chancellor of the institute amidst the continued absence of Vice-Chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh, which had prompted protests by staff and students.
Tezpur University – one of only two Central Universities in Assam – has been witnessing protests against the V-C for over two months, and last week, staff and students declared a shutdown of academic and administrative activities. The students and staff accuse Singh of financial irregularities and prolonged absences from the university, leading to “administrative stagnation”, disrepair of campus infrastructure, and disruption of academic processes.
Singh has been absent from the campus since late September. With the protest intensifying, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday that he had appealed to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to appoint a Pro-Vice Chancellor “pending an impartial enquiry into the conduct of the present Vice-Chancellor”.
The students and staff accuse Singh of financial irregularities and prolonged absences from the university, leading to “administrative stagnation”, disrepair of campus infrastructure, and disruption of academic processes. (Express Photo)
On Thursday, a notice was issued by the V-C for a “special emergent” meeting of the Board of Management, and an online meeting link was shared for the five external members and three internal members of the BOM. This meeting was held amidst opposition by the protesting university community, who have been demanding that the V-C be sent on administrative leave and an Acting V-C be appointed.
The minutes of the meeting, seen by The Indian Express, recorded the presence only of the V-C and four external members and stated that the board resolved to appoint Joya Chakraborty, a professor in the university’s Department of Mass Communication, as Pro-Vice Chancellor. This, too, was met with opposition and protests in the university. “We do not accept the current Vice-Chancellor and any decisions taken under him,” said a faculty member.
Registrar in charge Chandan Goswami said that Chakraborty declined the position.
“She sent a message to me that she is not interested in accepting the position. According to a statute of the university, if the office of the V-C is vacant and a Pro-VC is not available, the senior-most professor of the university shall perform the duties of the V-C till a new V-C assumes office or the existing V-C attends to his duties. It has been 75 days without the V-C’s presence, and the university has stopped functioning as a result. So Professor Bhattacharyya has assumed office. I informed both the Union Ministry of Education and the Governor through email late last night, and they have not replied to express objection so far,” he said.
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In a letter to the Secretary of the Ministry’s Department of Higher Education, Bhattacharyya, who is Senior Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, wrote that he has “assumed the charge of Office of the Vice-Chancellor as the Acting Vice Chancellor” with immediate effect from December 4, citing the statute mentioned by the Registrar in-charge – state 2(6) of the Second Schedule of the Tezpur University Act – and “the long absence of the Vice-Chancellor, non-functioning of the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and also in view of the current situation prevailing in the campus, to bring normalcy”.
