M A I N   N E W S

Central Varsity VC
Petitions push Mattoo out of race
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Fierce Opposition Professor Mattoo’s choice was apparently opposed by a string of representations from Jammu-based groups, accusing him of being pro-Pakistan, pro-separatists and anti-India. The Jammu Divisional Commissioner also sent a report to HRD Ministry saying Mattoo?s appointment could lead to law and order problems in Jammu.

New Delhi, August 1
There is uncertainty over the appointment of the first Vice Chancellor of the Central University at Jammu with the President yet to clear the panel forwarded to her for approval in April this year.

The President, who is the appointing authority for central university VCs in her capacity as Visitor, is to approve one of the four academicians in the panel shortlisted by an eight-member search and selection committee set up for the purpose.

The delay has added to the speculation that Professor Amitabh Mattoo, international affairs expert who headed the panel, is out of reckoning. The Tribune has now learnt from reliable sources that Mattoo, the former V-C of Jammu state university and presently a professor of Disarmament Studies at JNU, is almost out of the race for the top slot.

The other three academicians included in the panel were Prof R. Bhatnagar from the School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof Anil Kumar Singh from IIT Bombay’s Chemistry Department and Prof M.P. Mahajan, Professor Emeritus in the Chemistry Department of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

The President has the option of calling for a fresh panel of names but HRD Ministry sources believe the President would settle for one of the names in the panel.

“We don’t know what to do. The file has been lying with the President for far too long. Meanwhile, controversies around Mattoo’s appointment surfaced and the situation will have to be reassessed,” they told TNS.

Professor Mattoo’s choice was apparently opposed by a string of representations from Jammu-based groups, accusing him of being pro-Pakistan, pro-separatists and anti-India. The Jammu Divisional Commissioner also sent a report to HRD Ministry saying Mattoo?s appointment could lead to law and order problems in Jammu. Forwarded by the Chief Secretary of the state (he himself didn’t make any comments on the file), the report was sent by HRD Ministry to the President, who has twice asked the Ministry for comments on anti-Mattoo petitions.

Representations questioned Mattoo’s administrative credentials and accused him of “nepotism”, “favouritism”and “corruption” in appointments when he was the VC of Jammu state university, besides “being more interested in his and the faculty’s international and national exposure at the cost of classroom teaching.” Among anti-Mattoo petitioners are Panthers Party, Joint Students Federation of Jammu, Peoples Revolutionary Movement and Joint Action Committee of Students.