Stage set for 6 new VCs, 8 P-VCs before Bihar poll notification

The Raj Bhavan is now racing against time to appoint vice-chancellors (VC) and pro vice-chancellors in Bihar’s state universities. Several of the present VCs and Pro VCs have been holding additional charges for the past few months.

In Bihar, of the 12 state universities, the post of VC is vacant in six and that of pro-VC in eight. According to sources, the process of filling up these posts is in the advanced stages and could be notified by the end of the month, following mandatory consultation—there has to be a meaningful consultation between the governor and the chief minister, as per the direction of the Supreme Court—on the panel of names submitted by the search committee for each university.

The apex court had, in an unprecedented move in 2013, quashed the appointment of all the VCs and P-VCs appointed during the tenure of former Bihar governor Devanand Konwar and called for a transparent mechanism involving “meaningful and effective” consultation between the Chancellor and the state government.

“The Chief Minister may be invited to Raj Bhavan next week. Due to elections, the government may also like to have its social combination right, as at present there is only one VC from Bihar in state varsities, while the rest are from neighbouring UP,” said an official.

In some state universities, confidential reports about some candidates in the panel have also been sought by the Raj Bhavan, raising hopes for aspirants from Bihar.

The notification for the posts of VC and pro-VC was issued in March itself, and after that the last date for submitting applications online was extended twice up to May 15 due to the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last few weeks, the process gathered momentum and the search committees screened candidates online. According to sources in the Raj Bhavan, the interaction of prospective candidates with the search committee is complete for most of the universities.

The universities where the post of VC is vacant are Patna University, BN Mandal University (Madhepura), KSD Sanskrit University, Lalit Narayan Mithila University (both Darbhanga), Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University and JP University (Chapra).

On May 8, Raj Bhavan had directed all the acting VCs not to take any policy decisions, viz. matters related to appointment and promotion, conversing senate, syndicate or academic council meetings and decisions with financial implications without prior approval of the Chancellor. They were asked to carry out only day-to-day routine work.

In BN Mandal University (Madhepura), dean, faculty of humanities, and head, department of philosophy, Gyanranjan Dwivedi, has been performing the duties of the VC by the order of Raj Bhavan since May 26 after the term of AK Roy as VC ended.

BRABU VC Prof Hanuman Prasad Pandey holds the additional charge of Jai Prakash University (Chapra) since March 20. Before him, Magadh University VC professor Rajendra Prasad held the additional charge of JPU VC from January 24 to March 20.

Purnea University VC Rajesh Singh has been holding the additional charge of Lalit Narayan Mithila University since March 20. In addition, he also holds the charge of KSDSU.

Nalanda Open University VC HN Prasad holds the additional charge for Patna University, while Bihar Agriculture University VC Ajoy Kumar Singh holds the additional charge of TMBU.

In 2017 also, when the appointment process was delayed, the chancellor had to make ad hoc arrangement in eight universities by giving charge to the senior-most professors when the terms of the respective VCs ended.

“Due to the delayed start of the process for the appointment of VCs, the appointment of VCs and P-VCs invariably gets delayed. This time, the lockdown has also contributed to this. Ideally, the process should start 3-4 months before the date os vacancy arises,” said DM Diwakar, former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences.