As claimed by the Dalit outfits and faculty of Periyar University, candidates from a particular caste were recruited for the posts of librarian and physical director and the syndicate gave its approval and provided appointment orders to the recruited persons on September 27.
The University announced interviews for the posts of librarian and physical director will be conducted on Sunday (September 25), and both posts will be recruited under the general category. After this announcement, Dalit outfits raised their objection as they claimed these posts would be allocated to SC as per the 200-point roster system and also protested against the University. Dalit organisations and University faculty members also claim that Vice-Chancellor R. Jagannathan is allegedly attempting to recruit two members of his caste.
But the interview was conducted as per schedule on Sunday and as alleged by the Dalit outfits, two candidates belonging to a particular caste were selected. On Monday, after the Syndicate gave its approval for the selection, the appointment order was provided to the recruited assistant professors, on Tuesday.
Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DVK) president Kolathur Mani said he condemned the University for its attitude of overruling social justice.
“As per 200-point roster system, these posts are for SC(A) only. The University shows a G.O. issued in 2007 for its support, but after that, G.O.s were issued in 2008 and 2010. More experienced and qualified individuals also participated in the interview, belonging to BC, MBC, SCs and Muslims. But the University selected two candidates from a particular caste. We received information that during the Syndicate meeting, some members raised objections to these recruitment. But their objections were not taken into account. We suspect that officials in the Higher Education Department were also involved in recruiting these two,” Mr. Mani added.
Urging the State Government to interfere in this issue, Mr. Mani said Chief Minister M. K. Stalin and Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy should look into this issue immediately.
Alleging that people belonging to a particular caste grabbed the Higher Education Department, Ambedkar People’s Movement State president A. Annadurai said amid this much opposition, the University selected two candidates belonging to the Vice-Chancellor’s caste, and the duo were allegedly distant relatives of him. This shows how much influence they have in the Department. We decided to move to the Court against these two appointments. “We’re discussing with other Dalit outfits and democratic organisations regarding protests against the university,” Mr. Annadurai added.
When contacted, Vice-Chancellor R. Jagannathan was unavailable for comment. A higher official in the university administration said we provide 80% for their profile and 20% for the interviews out of a total of 100 marks. “These two candidates got higher scores than other candidates. So we recruited these two candidates.”
