Only two former Armymen join as university registrars

PATNA: Even as almost a month has elapsed since the chancellor’s office appointed ten ex-Army personnel as registrar of as many universities, only two of them have assumed the charge. The third appointee is likely to join in a day or two.

Making a departure from the convention of appointing academics or administrative officers as registrars, governor-cum-chancellor Satya Pal Malik appointed retired brigadiers and colonels as registrars in different universities of the state on April 3. The appointments were made on the recommendation of a search committee following its interaction with the candidates, whose names had been requisitioned by the chancellor’s secretariat from the Army HQ.

The search committee consisted of Patna University VC Rash Bihari Prasad Singh, Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University VC Nalini Kant Jha and Nalanda Open University VC Rabindra Kumar Sinha.

While Brigadier (retd) Asif Hussain has been appointed registrar of Maulana Mazharul Haq Arabic and Persian University, Colonel (retd) Manoj Mishra has been appointed registrar of Patna University. Colonels (retd) Rabi Shankar Sharma and Pranav Kumar have been appointed registrars of Jai Prakash University-Chhapra and B N Mandal University- Madhepura respectively.

Colonels (retd) Nisheeth Kumar Rai, Shyama Nand Jha and Ajay Kumar Roy have been appointed registrars of L N Mithila University-Darbhanga, Veer Kunwar Singh University-Ara and B R A Bihar University-Muzaffarpur.

Colonel (retd) Kamal Kishore Mishra has been appointed registrar of Magadh University, while Colonels (retd) Kamesh Kumar and Pravir Kant Jha have been appointed registrars of newly created Pataliputra University and Munger University respectively. Purnia University is yet to get a new registrar.

Retired Bihar Administrative Service officials Suresh Kumar Sharma and Ashok Kumar Jha have been appointed registrars of K S D Sanskrit University-Darbhanga and Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University respectively.

Only Colonel (retd) Shyama Nand Jha and Colonel (retd) Manoj Mishra have joined as the registrars of Veer Kunwar Singh University and Patna University, respectively. “Our registrar Col (retd) Pravir Kant Jha is likely to join on Thursday,” Munger University VC Ranjit Kumar Verma said on Wednesday.

Sources said the registrars were reluctant to join the university service in absence of well-defined service conditions. As they are already had certain jobs, they are apprehensive of the tenure of their appointment in universities, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the chancellor’s secretariat has reportedly asked the registrars to take charge at the earliest, failing which alternative arrangements would be made.

The chancellor’s secretariat has also constituted a committee of three VCs — R K Verma of Munger University, Nalini Kant Jha of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University and R K Sinha of Nalanda Open University — to frame the service conditions of the newly appointed registrars. The committee is learned to have submitted its report to the chancellor.

The sources said the remaining registrars were likely to assume charge once the service conditions were finalised.