Ahead of 20th convocation scheduled to be held on November 27, the Berhampur University is facing yet another bout of student unrest. The controversy now centres on an ongoing appointment of faculty members for various departments.
According to information, Vice-Chancellor Prof Deepak Behera's car was waylaid on way to his office and was rebuked in filthy language by a group of four students. These students were following him from behind.
They threatened the Vice-Chancellor of dire consequences if the ongoing recruitment of faculty positions was not immediately cancelled.
Subsequently, hundreds of students being aggrieved over the incident assembled in front of VC's official chamber in the administrative block within minutes and sought an appointment to meet the Vice-Chancellor. Even though media representatives wanted to meet the Vice-Chancellor to know the details of the incident and his comments on it, the Vice-Chancellor refused to meet anyone.
After being informed about the unpleasant incident, a police team reached the campus and started an investigation. Whether those misbehaved with the VC are students or non-students was yet to be known.
According to information available, over the last two days, the university has started a process of appointment of faculty members, where transparency is questioned. In the selection committee meeting, a DPI nominee reportedly demanded to change the guidelines and norms to make a particular candidate eligible reportedly at the behest of some influential members. Now, the academic fraternity demands an investigation by the CBI into the issue.
It may be recalled that only last week, a group of students in another incident had broken tables, chairs, and computers in the VC's room and ransacked the entire administrative building and demanded the resignation of the VC reportedly at the behest of a particular vested group. Following the deterioration of law and order situation in the campus and rising incidents of vandalism and frequent unrest, the scam- ridden university hogged headlines for all wrong reasons.
In the meantime, there is speculation that VC Prof Behera is reportedly contemplating to proceed to the Raj Bhavan to tender his resignation and request the Chancellor not to come to convocation in view of the growing indiscipline. The civil societies and intellectuals are of the opinion that the Government should immediately appoint a strict and experienced IAS officer or an academician outside the university system who has the credibility in academic administration and integrity in public life to take over the administration of the university.