Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Parliament district president Palla Srinivasa Rao has said that the hurdles being created by the university administraton, to foil the ‘Chalo Andhra University’ protest, cannot prevent the Opposition parties from exposing the ‘corrupt practices’, which he alleged, were taking place on the Andhra University campus.
Making serious allegations of corruption against Vice-Chancellor P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy at a media conference, in Visakhapatnam on March 4, Mr. Srinivasa Rao and party leader Gandi Babji demanded recall of the Vice-Chancellor and sought a CBI probe into the corruption charges against the V-C. They alleged that the V-C was openly aligning with the ruling party leaders and harassing the professors and staff, who were questioning his actions.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao alleged that the V-C had ordered re-revaluation of the answer scripts of the students of some colleges, which were towing his line, in a bid to favour the students of those colleges. The AU Printing Press was closed and the material was being supplied to some private agency outside the campus. A total of 18 useful courses in arts and science were withdrawn.
He alleged that ₹100 crore sanctioned towards RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan), a centrally sponsored scheme, to provide Doctoral and Post-Doctoral scholarships, were allocated by the V-C as per his whims and fancies. He also alleged harassment of SC/ST teachers by the V-C. The prestige of AU was being lowered by allowing political parties to conduct meetings and birthday parties on the university premises. He alleged that the V-C has converted the campus into a hotbed of political activities.
He said that an ‘Institute of Eminence’, which was sanctioned to AU during the previous government in 2018, was not being pursued by the YSR Congress Party government. The Centre would sanction ₹1,000 crore for the project but the State government has failed to submit the proposal during the last two-and-a-half years. The TDP leaders demanded that the Governor intervene in the matter and order a probe into the corruption charges against the V-C.
TNSF president M. Pranav Gopal, AISF president Johnson Babu and Student leader Areti Mahesh also spoke.
