Irregularities in appointment of asst. Profs, Profs at Maritime University: CVO

The vigilance probe has found serious irregularities in appointment of faculties at the central institution, which functions under the Union Shipping Ministry.

Earlier, Union Shipping Secretary, P K Sinha during a press conference in Chennai dismissed allegations of irregularities and claimed that a committee had merely found “procedural inadequacies” in the recruitment process.

The vigilance report, points out that on October 19, 2012, the screening committee had recommended only 23 out of 111 applicants for the interview for the post of Professor (School of Maritime Management). But, 25 candidates were interviewed.

“One candidate namely Dr Bhavana Venkata Ramalingeshwar Rao’s name does not figure in the 111 applications received and also in the 23 shortlisted for interview by the screening committee. Whereas the candidate’s name figures in the five recommended to be considered for Associate Professors in the selection panel proceedings,” the CVO report says.

“For some unexplained reason, Rao’s name did not figure in the list of candidates who were given the appointment orders, so far,” university told the CVO.

Some internal candidates were interviewed relaxing the eligibility criteria and hence there was a mismatch in the number of interviewees, said the varsity to CVO.

Gurudas Gupta, another candidate, who did not satisfy age and experience criteria, was appointed as Professor in IMU.

“The selection committee overlooked the fact that his annual performance appraisals from 2005 to 2008 indicated that ‘his performance is bad’. He was given the job though he was 58 years old, while the eligible age was 50,” states CVO report.

However, the screening committee had rejected applications from 20 other over-aged candidates. The university had justified the relaxation given to Gupta citing that he was an internal candidate.

Gupta was selected despite not having the mandatory 10 years of experience in postgraduate teaching, guiding research at doctoral level and service in academic grade pay.

The CVO also found that the selection panel recommended five candidates be considered for the post of Associate Professor after the interviews were over, reported New Indian Express.