Allotment of IAS officers: Vice-chancellor of Osmania University under Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: Allotment of IAS officers to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has once again put top universities of Telangana in a precarious position.

TS Education department secretary Vikas Raj has been allotted to AP and is to report to the government immediately, but he still remains the vice-chancellor of Osmania and Kakatiya Universities.

Earlier as well, officials who had provisionally been allotted to AP government officially had continued as heads of TS universities while not reporting for duties. However, sources said that the government would constitute the search committee for selection of vice chancellors of the seven universities in the state by next week and the process would be completed soon.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has put out the final list of IAS, IPS and IFS officers allotted to TS and AP. Officials have to report immediately to their allotted state government but can swap their posting with another official of the same grade pay. They have to do this within 15 days and the entire exercise will have to be completed within 45 days.

However, in Vikas Raj’s case, no official order has been given so far by the TS government, appointing another official as the in-charge vice-chancellor of the two state universities, which are two of the biggest and most important universities of the state.

Earlier, IAS officer K. Sunitha was provisionally allotted to AP but was officially still the vice-chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University. The situation had continued for several days till another official was appointed to the post. Osmania and Kakatiya Universities are now in a dilemma over the issue. “The government has to immediately appoint someone as in-charge vice-chancellor to the two state universities. As it is we don’t have a regular head for many months. Now all work will be stalled. A university should have a vice-chancellor at all times,” a senior official of Osmania University said.