SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, March 26: The three-member committee appointed by Vice-Chancellor (VC) Mukul Narayan Dev to probe the missing name and photo of Jharkhand state movement founder Binod Bihari Mahto in the 5th foundation day function of Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University (BBMKU) has snowballed into a controversy.
The social and political organizations that protested the insult of Binod Bihari Mahto in the function and compelled the VC to order a probe about lapses have cast doubts on getting a fair report from this committee who are also the university authorities.
At the 5th foundation day function of BBMKU at SSLNT Women’s College on March 23, university authorities paid tributes to Lata Mangeshkar, Bappi Lahari and other dignitaries but did not recall the name of Binod Bihari Mahto. Even his photo was missing from sight. As the name suggests, the university is named after Binod Bihari Mahto.
Taking the matter seriously, the VC had set up a three-member committee comprising Dr Shailendra Sinha (Dean, Faculty of Science), Dr Pushpa Rani (Dean, faculty of social science) and Dr JN Singh (Dean, education) to probe the matter. Dr JN Singh is also the principal of RSP College Jharia.
“We do not expect a fair probe from this committee as the members are authorities of the university. It is a mistake of the university because of how an administrator would hold the other guilty. So, this committee will never give a fair report. For proper investigation, outsiders or retired professors of Vinoba Bhave University Hazaribagh should have been kept in the committee,” said DK Singh, president, Professional Congress president, who protested at the function first.
DK Singh said that keeping the sentiment of Jharkhand people in view, the VC should follow his responsibility and take action against guilty officers involved in it. If any attempt is made to save the guilty persons, the Professional Congress will launch a massive stir.
A former dean of faculty of BBMKU Prof (Dr) SKL Das also observed that in the internal probe of the university, at least one outsider member is necessary for the committee for a fair probe.
“In the past, whenever an internal probe was conducted, an outsider member was included in it. In 2019-20, BBMKU had set up a committee for probing marking irregularities of students in which senior professors of IIT ISM were included,” said Dr Das.
However, BBMKU Teachers Association president Prof RK Tiwary has no objection to the members of the committee. “It is an internal probe and obviously internal authorities would be in the committee,” he said.
Notably, BBMKUTA had strongly protested for a probe of the incident two days ago.
Sources in the university said that the VC had first picked up BBMKUTA general secretary Prof Himanshu Shekhar Choudhary in the committee but his name was replaced at the last minute so that guilty authorities of the university could be protected.
