HYDERABAD: Even after 20 months, the government remains indecisive and silent on the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to 11 state universities.
Officials in the higher education department on Monday refused to answer questions regarding the appointments.
Sources said that the search committee is awaiting the Chief Minister's nod on the issue.
This comes almost a month after senior officials had told Deccan Chronicle that the government will present the choices to Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan for her approval, and that they were only waiting for the completion of Legislative Council elections in March.
It is over a week now since the Council elections were completed, but silence continues with two officials in the higher education department responding in non-committal tones on Monday.
On the other hand, issues over affiliation, salaries to teachers and a lack of proper administration in the time of crisis induced due to the closure of educational institutes around final examinations are all piling up.
"There has been a monopoly in administration. Even after 20 months, rector posts remain unchanged in universities across the state. Varsities are being run, more so neglected by the people who have been appointed to channelise higher education", said Dr Balakrishna Reddy, founder-president of Telangana Technical Institutions Employees Association (TTIEA). He added that several teachers in affiliated colleges have not received salaries for over a year now, and there was no one in the administration to address their grievances.
Meanwhile, Dr Santhosh Kumar, state president, Telangana Schools Technical Colleges Employees Association (TSTCEA), said that IAS officers continue to govern the state universities as vice-chancellors. They rarely visit and hence there is no one to regularise the affairs of the institutions.
"The Special Chief Secretary (Education) Chitra Ramchandran has called a meeting to discuss issues of implementation of rule of reservation and combined recruitment for filling up teaching staff in the universities, but how will this help when there are no regular VCs," Kumar wondered.
