Prof. Umesh Rai has taken over. Only time will tell the difference. Anyhow, a surgical academic and administrative strike and not a cosmetic surgery is the need of the hour at Jammu University that doesn’t enjoy a stature and that has become a one big headache for the intelligent and indulgent civil society of Jammu.
A few facts may be brought to the notice of the person on the hot seat. While receiving a bouquet captured in a local daily, it was read that Prof. Rai congratulated Mr. Dhar as a token of courtesy as also for his outstanding work as VC of JU.
Let us not be in a hurry to bracket an outgoing officer as outstanding. Outstanding? “Kashmir University has once again secured position among top 50 universities in India while the Jammu University has slipped 20 notches from its last year place in the all India ranking of varsities, conducted by Union Ministry of Education under National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)” as reported by one daily on 10-09-2021. Wow! Really an outstanding performance.
Numerous complaints about the modus operandi of Mr. Dhar have reached Raj Bhavan from different quarters and Team CVC has already sounded a bugle for the Institution of a commission of inquiry to sift the grain from the husk.
A formal complaint of his period is still pending with ACB and some of the University have been trying their level best to scuttle the things. It is also in the notice of Raj Bhavan.
It is expected of Mr. Rai to go in for reshuffle and only the sincere and well-meaning tried and tested. Get rid of DRS, Director CDC, Director DDE and even the incumbent Registrar.
There is no harm in replacing one Neeraj, his Special Secretary because entrenched officers many times do more harm than good to the system. They develop a vested interest and consider themselves indispensable. All this is being written with a sufficient application of mind and zero malice.