Vijayawada, March 6 : Telugu Desam Party National General Secretary Nara Lokesh on Sunday urged Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan to order an inquiry into the alleged ‘rampant irregularities’ in the Andhra versity, Visakhapatnam, and take steps to protect the future of students and staff. In a letter to Harichandan, Lokesh has raised concern over unchecked corruption, manipulation of professors’ appointments, and misuse of UGC funds and so on ever since PVGD Prasad Reddy was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of AU in November 2020. There has been a gross violation of multiple rules, norms, and acts in the administration of the versity. He said that the VC has been overseeing a corrupt regime of corruption by allegedly manipulating appointments to the detriment of professors from oppressed comm ties, misusing revaluation procedures, shutting down long-standing institutions such as the printing press and exploiting UGC funds meant for nurturing budding scholars. There was an immediate need to recall Prasad Reddy so as to prevent the downslide, the TDP leader said. Recalling the glorious past of AU, Lokesh said the versity had a rich history with Vice Chancellors of great repute such as Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan moulding its destiny. Shockingly, a versity with such a legacy was being now used as a place of rehabilitation for political appointments. The Vice Chancellor himself was present at a comm ty-centric meeting during the 2019 elections. The TDP National General Secretary said that many questions have been raised over whether the VC was loyal to his duties or to those who helped him to get the appointment. The record of appointments, promotions, and liquidation of posts in the past year was clear proof of the AU administration’s prejudiced approach against professors, lecturers, and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. The TDP senior leader said highly competent individuals were ignored for the sake of appointing loyalists who have either already retired or are j or in rank. A whole range of other such allegations were made against the Vice-Chancellor. Appallingly, the acclaimed departments of philosophy and religious studies, Sanskrit, and Archaeology have been shut down. Many courses and specialisations have been either stopped or merged with other courses, Lokesh said. The TDP MLC took strong objection that lack of teaching staff was shown as a reason to bypass AU’s own faculty in making preferential appointments. Just as troubling was the non-availability of Rs. 100 crore, granted by UGC for 500 doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships, for their intended use. The recent protests by students would further intensify if these issues were not resolved in a fair and prompt manner, he said. DP CS1811