Ruckus at KU Senate meet over appointments

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Senate meeting of the Kerala University on Thursday witnessed a ruckus over the appointments of the Standing Counsel and Legal Advisor following which the Vice-Chancellor adjourned the day’s proceedings. It was Senate member Sunilkumar who sought permission to move a resolution demanding discussion on the appointments. The appointment of George Poonthotum as Standing Counsel and Abdul Karim as Legal Advisor after the UDF Government came to power had invited criticism from various quarters. Kerala University Vice-Chancellor A Jayakrishnan, refusing to grant permission to the resolution, said that the Senate had no power to challenge the decision of the Syndicate which had approved the appointments. However, LDF members said that the move of the VC to adjourn the meeting was to avoid a voting on the issue. Had the resolution been put to vote, it would have been passed, sources said. At that time, there were 55 LDF members in the hall while the number of UDF members was less than 20. They said that the resolution had called only for a discussion on the issue and was not meant to challenge the decision.  The election to the student Senate member was carried out as the first agenda of Thursday’s Senate meeting.  SFI’s Vineeth Govind was elected to the post beating Sajukhan. The election to the Accounts Committee was also held in which 3 members - two from LDF and one from UDF- were elected. A Gopikuttan, M S Vasanthakumar and P R Biju are the members.  The complaint filed by Abdul Saleem regarding the directive that PG students when appearing for the supplementary must write all papers in the semester, would be reviewed by the Revaluation sub-committee, said Syndicate member Jamal Kunju at the meeting.  On the complaint that the criteria for joining research or for becoming a research guide were being widely violated, Syndicate member P S Sreekala said that inquiry would be conducted on the issue and action taken. The issues regarding choice-based credit and semester system, open course and fee structure would be looked into, Syndicate member K L Vivekanandan said in reply to a a submission by Sunilkumar.