Chennai: Ashok Vardhan Shetty has his hands full in his new assignment as the vice-chancellor of the Indian Maritime University here. The 56-year-old who recently took premature retirement from the IAS after spotless service was actually the dark horse when the VC-search committee picked him from a panel of four names that included two academicians and senior bureaucrat S Machendranathan, more fancied considering his senior position at the Union Cabinet Secretariat.
With the President of India approving his appointment, Shetty on Thursday took charge of his daunting task of cleaning up the massive mess at IMU, the country’s only maritime university. Those who know him would bet he would be able to set things right much before completing his five-year term.
“We know that Shetty gave up a very attractive assignment offer that would have got him remuneration ten times more than what he will now get at IMU. He must have been drawn to this job because it’s prestigious to be vice-chancellor of a prestigious university and besides, he always liked tough challenges”, said a senior bureaucrat, commenting on Shetty’s new assignment.
The new VC has a huge list of tasks to be done double quick—over a hundred posts need to be filled, including that of the registrar, controller of examinations and financial controller.
The university does not have enough number of teachers and has not issued a degree so far since inception in November 2008. No proper efforts appear to have been taken to recover the dues from about three dozen institutions affiliated, running to over Rs 22 crore.
