Kolkata: The office of the Director General of Audit (Central) has sent a set of queries to the authorities of Visva-Bharati University, founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, over several important posts lying vacant in the central varsity.
University sources said the posts under question include pro-vice chancellor, registrar, finance officer, internal audit officer, chief security officer and librarian.
The office of the DGA (Central) has asked whether appointment for these posts have been made, and if not, what are the reasons for that.
It is learnt that the appointment for the post of pro-VC is mandatory as per the provisions of the Visva-Bharati Act, 1961. However, sources confirmed that although the queries came almost a couple of weeks back, no reply has been submitted yet by the university authority.
All attempts made to contact the university’s vice chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty failed as he was unreachable. Visva-Bharati is the only central university in the country which has the Prime Minister of India as its chancellor.
Meanwhile, the Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association (VBUFA) had informed Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan almost five months back about the vacancies in the said posts, and it is perceived that the queries from the office of DGA (Central) came as an after-effect.
VBUFA had also pointed out that although Ashish Agarwal was appointed as the registrar in December 2021, he resigned in March this year.
VBUFA had also alleged that Agarwal’s resignation was prompted by his disgruntlement for not being allowed to operate freely in resolving certain differences between the university authorities and the students.
VVUFA president Sudipto Bhattacharya said that without proper investigation and intermediation of an independent authority, such internal problems can never be resolved.
“We, on behalf of VVUFA, have been vocal on such issues. But nothing has worked out so far,” he said.
(IANS)
