Mumbai: Maharashtra Government on Monday launched a fresh investigation into alleged irregularities in the appointments of officials at the University of Mumbai (MU), even as an earlier inquiry had already found violation of hiring rules.
The earlier probe, conducted by the state Directorate of Higher Education (DHE), had found that, between 2009 and 2013, a number of people appointed to key positions of Deputy Registrars (DR) and Assistant Registrars (AR) despite lacking the necessary qualifications and fulfilling eligibility criteria. However, despite these revelations, no action has been taken so far.
According to a government official, the probe came at the behest of the Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil. "The committee will look [into the issues] afresh," said the official. When asked what was the need for doing the same exercise again, the official replied, "I really don't know, but the honourable minister has guided, so we have formed a new committee."
The new three-member probe committee led by RS Mali, former Vice Chancellor of North Maharashtra University Jalgaon has been asked to submit its report within one month. The committee is required to conduct a detailed scrutiny of whether the appointed ARs and DRs fit the eligibility criteria at the time of hiring. The government has asked the inquiry team to find which university officials and staff are responsible for the alleged irregularities.
MU currently has 11 DRs and 13 ARs, who lead various administrative departments of the university.
The appointment process of many of the other employees of the university have also been marred by complaints of irregularities and discrepancies. According to an inquiry report, published in February 2016 by a government-appointed committee, many senior teaching and non-teaching varsity staff don't have the necessary qualification.
The report has also accused the varsity of violating appointment norms by promoting employees, who were appointed on university's self-financed posts, to government-aided posts. The report said that many employees who were appointed on administrative positions, don't have the administrative experience mentioned in the advertisements for the posts.
