Tamil Nadu, reeling under a series of agitations and demonstrations on issues ranging from Cauvery Management Board, Sterlite Copper, illegal sand quarrying, and environmental permission granted to the Neutrino Observatory at Theni got another controversy in the form of appointment of Prof M K Surappa of the Indian Institute of Science as the Anna University Vice-Chancellor on Thursday.
A search committee headed by VS Sirpurkar, a former judge of the Supreme Court had selected Prof Surappa from a panel of more than 100 candidates. Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of Tamil Nadu who is also the chancellor of the university made the announcement about the appointment of Surappa, “a PhD in materials engineering with more than three decades of teaching experience, of which 24 years were spent at Indian Institute of Science which is No.1 in the country as per the ranking by the National Institutional Ranking Framework Ranking,” through a release. Anna University has been without a Vice-Chancellor since March 25, 2016 when M Rajaram retired after completing his tenure. The appointment of Surappa, who is from Karnataka, is being projected by the Opposition parties as an attempt by the BJP to saffronise Tamil Nadu. Vaiko, leader of the MDMK who was busy walking from Thoothukudi to Chennai demanding the closure of Sterlite Copper, a company owned by the Vedanta, took time off from walkathon and staged another demonstration against the appointment of Surappa.
“We had asked for Cauvery water but the Centre gave us a Kannada Vice-Chancellor overlooking hundreds of qualified persons from Tamil Nadu,” said Vaiko. But the Anna University Teachers Association welcomed the appointment of Prof Surappa and offered him the full support of the outfit.
Even as the Governor was handing over the appointment order to Surappa at a simple function at Raj Bhavan, sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption raided the bank lockers of former vice chancellor Rajaram and seized 4 kg gold including 2kg gold coins and gold biscuits. “I was reminded of a TV commercial which claim about gold rain. It was raining gold when we opened the lockers of Rajaram and his family,” said a DVAC official. He said they came across documents related to registering of 22 new buses in the name of Rajaram’s wife.