Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, August 22
The ongoing confrontation between the Nitish Kumar government and Raj Bhawan in Bihar escalated further on Tuesday when the secretary of education department issued advertisements inviting applications for the appointment as Vice-Chancellors in seven universities.
Principal secretary to Governor on Monday had separately invited applications. Under section 10 of the Bihar state universities Act, Chancellor appoints Vice-Chancellors in consultations with the government.
Tension started between the two wings on August 17, when education department directed the district magistrate of Muzaffarpur to salaries of the vice-chancellor and pro vice-chancellor of B R Ambedkar University.DM was directed to ensure the two officers were not allowed to have any financial transactions and banks were instructed to stop payments to the VC and PVC.
Next day, R L Chongthu, Principal Secretary to Governor, Rajendra Arlekar sent a letter to Baidyanath Yadav, secretary of education department calling his instructions to deny salary to VC and PVC as arbitrary and beyond jurisdiction. He asked the secretary to withdraw his letter and issued instructions to branch managers of three banks at Muzaffarpur to facilitated banking transactions to the VC and PVC. Chongthu said letter of education secretary was an attack on autonomy of the university.
Education department refused to oblige Raj Bhawan and in a letter to Principal secretary said, state government cannot allow anarchy to prevail in the name of autonomy in the universities. Baidyanath Yadav claimed state government was disbursing Rs 4,000 crores annually to the universities and it was within its right to seek accountability.
Yadav asked DM of Muzaffarpur to direct the banks dealing with BR Ambedkar university to deny any transactions. He also summoned the Registrar, Finance officer and controller of examinations of university at Patna tomorrow to ensure smooth and timely conduct of examinations. Earlier, such meetings were held at Raj Bhawan with Governor as Chancellor presiding them.
Tension aggravated today when Baidyanath Yadav issued advertisements in local and national newspapers inviting applications for appointment as vice chancellor in seven universities within a month. On Monday, principal secretary of the Governor had also issued advertisements for the same positions in seven universities.
While the Raj Bhawan has charged the state government with attacking the autonomy of universities, the government retaliated by alleging anarchy in the universities controlled by the Chancellor.
