How Bindu's intervention nullified the PSC-approved list of principals

Thiruvananthapuram: More details on the role played by Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu in scuttling the process of appointment of principals in Government Arts and Science Colleges in the State have come out.

The minister “interfered’ in the selection process after the left teachers' association, Association of Kerala Government College Teachers or AKGCT, submitted a memorandum to this effect, new documents reveal.

Thereafter, the second selection committee illegally constituted on the direction of the minister set aside the list of principals drawn up earlier.

The ruse?
The education minister first directed to appoint an appeal committee to facilitate inclusion of those rejected in the first list of 43 candidates which had received the nod of the Kerala Public Service Commission. However, following a court case, she turned the appeal committee into a selection panel chaired by the Higher Education Principal Secretary.

However, the formation of the second selection committee is in violation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.

The measure was taken with the aim to nullify the PSC-approved list, which she directed the officials to treat only as a “draft” list.

The second selection committee formed on the direction of the minister comprised the College Education Director; Higher Education Additional Secretary; former Vice Chancellor of Sanskrit University Dr J Prasad; ex-Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) of Mahatma Gandhi University Dr C T Aravindakumar; Kannur PVC Dr A Sabu; Kerala Registrar K S Anil Kumar; and 14 subject experts.

This panel includes two to three experts even in a single subject and the same includes the retired as well.

The fate of those in first list
Five of the 43 candidates, whose names featured in the first list, have retired and two are due to retire next year. In effect, the list has only 36 candidates as of now, but it includes those with up to only 11 years of service.

Legal hassles of overturning the initial list are to be expected as those who were bypassed are likely to move the court.

110 applied; 67 qualified
A total of 110 government college teachers had applied for the 62 posts of principals. The first selection committee, chaired by the Director of Collegiate Education, found 67 of them having the necessary qualification in the preliminary round examination. However, more names were omitted from the list after it was revealed that some of them had published their thesis on publications having no UGC recognition.

The committee found that 44 of the candidates fulfilled all the required qualification criteria as per the UGC norms. One of them then withdrew his name, and the list was shortened to 43 candidates. It was this list that was sent for the approval of the Departmental Promotion Committee, chaired by a PSC member.

Headless institutions
Even as the appointment of principals gets delayed even further, 62 out of the total 66 Government Arts and Science colleges remain headless. Only four colleges have Principles appointed on a permanent basis. No appointments have been carried out in the 62 colleges since July 18, 2018.

Out of the five Deputy Director posts, the promotional posts of principals, four are lying vacant. The Additional Director posts, to which they should be promoted, too, are now under interim appointees.

'Minister Bindu’s claim wrong'
The Save University Campaign Committee has demanded an apology from the Minister Bindu for claiming that she had held the post of only the Vice-Principal, and not as the Principal In-Charge, of the Kerala Varma College, Thrissur.

During a recent press conference held in Thrissur, Minister Bindu was asked whether she herself had worked as the Principal In-Charge and why she was going slow on the appointment of principals. She had replied in the negative then.

Her statement is a blatant lie, the Committee said.

Bindu was appointed as Principal In-Charge for the period from November 13, 2020, to March 10, 2021 while she was serving as the Vice-Principal. The same has been recorded on the college website.

Her took charge as the interim head after the then-Principal Dr Jayadevan resigned.

The Committee also alleged her role behind the cancellation of the PSC-approved principal appointment list and the formation of a complaint redressal committee, comprising leftist representatives.

The Committee submitted a memorandum to the Governor and the Chief Minister to take steps to carry out appointments from the PSC-approved list and desist from acting in violation of the UGC norms.