The Berhampur University is once again dragged into controversy for recommending a name of an outsider for award of Honoris Causa.
Brahmapur MlA Dr Ramesh Chandra Chyau Pattnaik has reportedly recommended the name of Odishi dancer Dona Ganguly for award of this prestigious degree to her. The university’s Syndicate has approved the proposal. But several important persons have criticised the move.
The university has already forwarded the resolution of the Syndicate to the Chancellor (State Governor) for his approval, sources said.
Several eminent personalities of Brahmapur like former presidents of Ganjam Bar Association Bhagaban Sahu and Basanta Kumar Panda and social activist and writer Jyoti Prasad Chhotroy reportedly have criticised the move of the university to confer the prestigious degree to a person who “has no contribution to education and culture of the State of Odisha”.
Former member of Berhampur University Senate and senior advocate Bhubaneswar Panigrahi has written a letter to the Chancellor demanding an impartial probe into the selection of Dona Ganguly for the degree. When there is no dearth of talented people of Odisha in general and south Odisha in particular, how the university and the local MlA recommended an outsider having no contribution to our State for the degree, Panigrahi has wondered. Coordinator of Manav Adikar Suraksha Manch Abani Kumar Gaya has described the university’s recommendation as a biased move.
When there are hundreds of freedom fighters, educationists, social activists, technocrats, jurists, artists available within our own district as well as in the State, how could the university recommend an outsider for this prestigious degree, he had questioned.
Gaya demanded an impartial investigation into the circumstances that led to such an “undesirable recommendation at the behest of vested groups and insulting the people of Odisha.”