Mysuru: The State Government has appointed Senior KAS Officer D. Bharati as the Registrar of the University of Mysore. With this appointment, she becomes the first lady officer to hold the post in the one-hundred-year-old University.

The Government passed this order yesterday and the incumbent Registrar Prof. R. Rajanna has been sent back to his parent department. One of the reasons for appointing an outsider to the post, it is said, is to end the rift between the acting Vice-Chancellor and the current Registrar who are said to be at loggerheads.

Earlier, Bharati was working as Additional DC of Chamarajnagar, Mysuru Revenue Department Additional Regional Commissioner, Mysuru Taluk Assistant Commissioner, Mysuru City Corporation Revenue Officer and as BBMP Assistant Commissioner.

Bharati who is an alumnus of the Mysore University said that she was very proud to be the Registrar of the hundred-year-old institution. “I had studied between 1992-95 in Hunsur College, which is a part of this University. I will discharge my duties according to the rules and regulations. I do not have any information about the allegations in the University. After I go there I will collect all the details,” she said.

Meanwhile, when Star of Mysore spoke to Prof. Rajanna, he said that he still had not received any order from the Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department and until now; he has read it only in the newspapers. Once he receives the orders, he will comply and return to his department. “I have worked honestly and to my conscience. I have delivered as the Registrar, for the past one year,” he said.

When asked about his view on an academician being replaced by a bureaucrat as the Registrar, former Vice-Chancellor Prof. S.N. Hegde said, “I have always felt that someone who can work with the Vice-Chancellor, whether he is a bureaucrat or an academician, with compatibility and understands that VC is the head and he is the Secretary, then it is not an issue at all.”

Asked about his own experience, he said, “When Prof. V.G. Talwar, an academician, was my Registrar, we had a very good understanding. However, when Chikkerur, a Police Officer became the Registrar, I had lot of problems. I went to the Chief Secretary and got him transferred. Hence, one who holds the post of Registrar should understand that the Vice-Chancellor is the Principal Executive Officer of the University. Otherwise, what you see is what is happening now, ‘washing dirty linen in the public’.”

A lady Professor of the University, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “I definitely welcome a lady as the Registrar and that too, it is the first time in the history of the University that it is happening. However, what cannot be accepted is that the appointment is not as per regulations. They cannot violate the rules.”

She said that personally she preferred an academician as the Registrar as the University is not a Taluk Office but an academic body. If a bureaucrat is appointed then the autonomy of the University gets defeated. It is not a parking space for a Government employee who wants to spend some time waiting for a better posting.

The important issue is that if a University has to get good recognition then the three main focus should be on teaching, research and publication which only an academician understands. However, it is sad to see that a person who is charged with various allegations is heading the University, she said.

Another Professor, who also did not wish to be named said, “What can we do? I think it is a good move by the Government in the interest of the public and the University to bring an outsider at this juncture when there is so much of turmoil following the tussle between the VC and the Registrar who are washing the dirty linen in the public.”

However, he wondered, how good the bureaucrat who has been appointed now would be. A bureaucrat tends to go by the rule book quoting KCSR rules, and would not be interested in understanding the academic orientation of the University, he said.

A former Vice-Chancellor, who wished to remain anonymous said, “What can we do now? It is all caste considerations at play. The Higher Education Department has thrown all the rules and regulations to the wind and appointed a new Registrar who is a bureaucrat.”

Another retired Professor recalled how P.S. Ramanuja, an IPS officer, worked as Registrar without any problems with the then Vice-Chancellor. He said much depends on the individual officers and their work culture.