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Annamalai University VC suspended

Last Updated 06 April 2013, 19:47 IST

Annamalai University (AU) Vice-Chancellor M Ramanathan was suspended on Saturday pending a probe into the charges of financial and other irregularities in the varsity.

The 84-year-old university is facing charges of bad governance for several months now. An order suspending the vice-chancellor “with immediate effect,” issued by Tamil Nadu Governor and varsity Chancellor K Rosaiah has plunged the institution into a fresh crisis.The latest development comes two days after the state government posted senior IAS officer Shiv Das Meena as the varsity’s administrator.

 The university founded by the late Sir Raja Annamalai Chettiyar of Chettinad is a sprawling residential campus at Chidambaram. The AU’s distance education programme is widely popular across the country and around 3 lakh students are its students. A special audit team, constituted by the state government to look into allegations of financial and other irregularities in the university, found that the charges have a prima facie basis.

The financial irregularities uncovered by the team showed alleged “diversion of funds, running to several crores of rupees and misappropriation of funds,” the Governor said in his order. “The audit report on the AU said its senate and syndicate have admitted to “diversion of university funds to its hospital, appropriation of provident fund and contributory pension fund, non-remittance of pension contribution, lapses in collecting dues, making excessive appointments and excessive fixation of salary,” the order added.

Stating that it is the responsibility of the vice-chancellor to ensure proper functioning of the university, the Governor said it has become necessary to investigate the charges “in detail, from all angles and in particular with respect to the working of the institution and persons responsible for the “maladministration”. 

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(Published 06 April 2013, 19:47 IST)

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