Serious measures have been taken at Gujarat University regarding appointments made during the tenure of former Vice Chancellor (VC) Niraj Gupta. The university has suspended ten employees who were appointed in various departments during her leadership. It is alleged that these appointments were rushed, and these employees were paid large monthly salaries, with some receiving up to 500,000 rupees.
A few days ago, the student organization ABVP demanded the removal of these ten controversially appointed employees who had been inducted into the university. In response, the responsible Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University, Jagish Joshi, formed a three-member committee on August 5th to investigate the qualifications, hiring rules, and the appointment process of these employees. After the investigation was completed and the report received, the committee ordered the temporary suspension of all ten employees pending further orders.
Following the investigation, the responsible Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University, Jagish Joshi, announced the immediate suspension of the following individuals: Srinivas Rao Sureddy, CEO of GUSEC; Mansingh Rau, CEO of IDSRF; Bishwajit Adhikari, Senior Vice President of GUSEC; Dinesh Kumar, OSD of Accounts Department; Pavana Pandit, Director of CPC and Head of KS; Chandrashekhar Jha, Engineer of Real Estate Department; Dr. Raja Chawla and Sonal Malhotra, Professor and Intern; Tushar Trivedi, Lawyer; Paresh Soni, Firefighter. These employees were suspended immediately after receiving the report from the three-member investigative committee. Numerous questions arose surrounding their appointments made under the previous Vice Chancellor, which led to the decision for their temporary suspension.
ABVP Minister Karnavati Nagar, Dhrumil Akhani, stated that the movement had been protesting against illegal appointments in the university for a long time. He noted that some of these individuals lacked the necessary qualifications, and some were even retired employees of SBI or ONGC, yet they were illegally appointed to university positions with salaries ranging from 2 to 5 lakhs. Akhani emphasized that these funds should have been used for the needs of ordinary students. He also stated that merely suspending these ten employees, who were paid millions of rupees in violation of UGC guidelines, is insufficient; a full restitution of the funds that should have gone to the benefit of students must be made.
Dhrumil Akhani added that the annual expenditure for the first four employees in GUSEC was 30 lakh rupees, but after the new appointments over the last three years, this amount has grown to more than 10 million rupees. He clarified that the former GUSEC employee was appointed with a salary of 5 lakh rupees per month, while other employees received 2.5 lakh rupees. Appointments in departments such as Accounts, Legal, Firefighting, and CPC were made without any approval and were accompanied by huge salary payments. These appointments clearly violated UGC rules. Although all employees were suspended after the protests, activists insist that the university return all the millions of rupees paid to these employees.
