Appointment of IAS babus as VCs draws Congress ire

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Thursday has strongly condemned Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for appointing IAS officers as in-charge Vice Chancellors for eight universities in Telangana State.

"The State government should have appointed regular Vice Chancellors with full charge instead of appointing in-charge VCs.

Further, the Chief Minister has assigned the job to IAS officers instead of roping in experienced academicians," Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said in a media statement.

Narayana Reddy accused the Chief Minister of not giving due importance to higher education, especially the universities. He said it was highly condemnable that the Chief Minister was treating universities as mere departments which could be handled by IAS officers on part time basis.

The Congress leader pointed out that the VC post in seven universities fell vacant on July 24 while the positions in Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (KGUKT) in Basar and Satavahana University in Karimangar and Mahatama Gandhi University in Nalgonda have been lying vacant for a long time.

"The Chief Minister should have initiated the process of appointment of full-fledged Vice-Chancellors well in advance instead of appointing in-charge VCs," he said while adding that the appointment of in-charge VCs was an indication that the Chief Minister might delay the appointment of new VCs for a long time.

Narayana Reddy said Chandrashekar Rao has been neglecting the State universities ever since he became the Chief Minister in 2014. He said universities were deprived of funds and no efforts were made to fill the vacancies.

" The Chief Minister's continuous neglect of universities and the welfare of students has become so obvious that today that the Chief Minister is unable to step into any university without expecting protest from the staff and students.

The TRS government has systematically ruined the entire higher education system. There are no funds, no staff and soon there will be no students in most of the courses in State universities," he said.