Although much water has flown in the river Kuakhai, the lifeblood of Bhubaneswar, the files of allegations and counter-allegations are gathering dust in the Raj Bhavan Secretariat sans any follow-up action. The Raj Bhavan Babudom seems scared of opening the alleged account of curry favouring in the selection of Vice-Chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT) held on March 17, 2013 after having kept the file for nearly three months.
The instance of drowning of all logic and ratiocinations came to an abrupt end in some minutes before the guard of honour for the departing Governor MC Bhandare took place. The discrepancy in the procedure for the final selection of the OUAT VC was conducted under surreptitious circumstances. As per the usual practice and procedure, the Governor as the Chancellor of the university has to interact with the sponsored candidates duly recommended by the State Government and the ICAR, New Delhi. The desired interaction had taken place on December 21, 2012 with nine candidates.
Out of these nine candidates, six remained for consideration for the top position of VC after being shortlisted as per the instruction of the Governor on December 24, 2012. The excluded candidates were RN Senapati, Prof JK Jena and Dr NK Dhal. It is understood through the RTI route that the Personal Appraisal Reports (PARs) of the remaining six candidates for the last available five years were sought from their respective organisations in order to enable the Governor to take the conclusive steps in this context.
After a careful scrutiny and verification of the PARs for the last five years by the Governor, the names of four candidates Prof RK Panda, Prof Shankarsan Nanda, Prof Dibakar Naik and Dr.Budhadev Misra were excluded in the process owing to some reasons or other. There was stalemate in the administrative affairs of the OUAT for nearly three long months up to the second week of March 2013 as reported in the Press. Perhaps, nowhere in the country has such a situation ever witnessed.
Subsequently after exclusion of seven candidates in two phases, only two remained for consideration in the final fray, they being Prof Asutosh Samantaray and Prof Manoranjan Kar. Intriguingly enough, how then on March 8, 2013 the names of nine candidates were again put up by the Additional Secretary to the Governor, making a mockery of the procedure undertaken so far as an exercise in futility.
Academicians wonder how the concerned Babus play havoc in the name of administration on a crucial issue like the selection of a Vice-Chancellor. Academicians also wonder as to how some senior bureaucrats manage to stay put in the Governor’s Secretariat even for nine long uninterrupted years, i.e., almost about one- third of their service careers.
The students and the staff of the OUAT were kept in an animated state of waiting since the administration came to a grinding halt because of the indecisiveness of the office of the Chancellor till the date of farewell to Bhandare on March, 16, 2013. It is in his farewell speech that Bhandare regretted about some files which would be disposed of by his successor. The file relating to the selection of OUAT VC was one such as reported in media on March 17, 2013.
Interestingly, the Governor disposed of the file relating to selection of OUAT VC only about 45 minutes before taking guard of honour on March 17, 2013. Although more than one and a half years have passed in the mean while, the world of academia staunchly believes that the truth must come out since such a high office like the Chancellor’s should be always above doubts.