Process for appointing new AU chancellor gains pace

PRAYAGRAJ : The process for appointment of the new chancellor of Allahabad University (AU) has now picked up speed. The five names that have been agreed upon by the executive council (EC) will be forwarded to the Visitor (President of India), said varsity officials.

Now the vice-chancellor will send these five names in a sealed envelope to the union Ministry of Education, following which the President will select one name among them to be appointed as the new chancellor of AU, the officials added.

The development comes at a time when the website of AU still mentions noted educationist Prof Govardhan Mehta’s name as the AU chancellor despite the fact that his term ended on June 12, 2017.

Around four years back, prof Mehta had also sent his resignation to the union ministry even before his term was formally over. In his resignation, he had mentioned various irregularities in AU and had said that he did not want to continue as chancellor of AU for these very reasons.

After this, on June 29, 2019, the ministry asked for the names of eminent scientists or enlightened persons of the country for the post of chancellor within 10 days.

Later, on August 16, 2019, a list of five names for the new chancellor was prepared by AU and sent to the ministry.

Among them, names of educationist Prof KB Pandey, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, BHU and KGMU-Lucknow Vice-Chancellor Prof Hari Gautam, Dr Ravindra Shukla, Education Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Justice Sakharam Yadav and former ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan were included.

However, the union education ministry rejected all these names.

On August 28, 2020, the ministry’s deputy secretary Surat Singh sent a letter to the AU administration seeking five names afresh.

Following the instructions, AU administration had prominently included this in the agenda of its executive council meeting held in March 2021. It was decided in the meeting that all members of the executive council would suggest two names each and directly email the same to the vice-chancellor.

Now, almost all members have sent two names of their choice and now it is for the VC to screen the names and send five names to the union ministry. After this, the President will put a final seal on any one of these names for the appointment of five years.

AU’s public relation officer, Jaya Kapoor said that work was underway for the selection of the proposed names for the post of AU chancellor.

Once the process is complete, the sealed envelope will be sent to the union Ministry of education along with the proposal, she added.