The Brahmapur University has once again been pushed into a controversy with a human rights activist alleging that two candidates, whose candidature were rejected last year for the post of Oceanography Reader in the Marine Sciences Department, have been shortlisted this year for filling up the post. President of RUPA, an NGO, and NHRC activist Biranchi Narayan Mohapatra has threatened to file a petition against the incumbent Vice-Chancellor in this regard.
He said the two candidates do not fulfil the requisite qualifications required for the coveted post. According to Mohapatra, while one of the two is currently working as a Scientific Officer at the Chilika Development Authority, Bhubaneswar, another is a Consultant at the l&T. “The Scrutiny Committee, though have pointed out that the two candidates are not eligible as per UGC norms, yet has foxily left the matter to the discretion of the university and thus allowing a scope for corruption,” he alleged.
He further alleged that the two candidates do not meet the requisites as they have not served as an Assistant Professor or an equivalent post nor have served as research scholars, which are required as per University PhD Regulations. According to Mohapatra, the candidate who is serving as the Scientific Officer had registered his name for the PhD degree in the university on May 25, 2002 and had submitted his PhD Thesis on May 23, 2011, a few days before expiry of his registration. Before 2002, the candidate had been reportedly working as Scientific Assistant at the ORSAC, Bhubaneswar on a temporary basis. The post of Scientific Officer carries a lesser scale of pay than that of Assistant Professor post and the candidate has not done any research work
Similarly, the other candidate, who is working as the consultant with the l and T, has no experience of guiding researchers at Doctoral level as he has not produced any PhD Thesis. Besides, there is an allegation against the candidate for reportedly being resorted to plagiarism in one of his research publications. “These being their experience history, how the Scrutiny Committee has shortlisted them as eligible candidates,” Mohapatra wanted to know, further alleging that the second candidate has also misused the name of Berhampur University as his work place in his Research Papers
Mahapatra has demanded that the Chancellor probe the matter to unearth the truth and the nexus between the university administration and the candidates.