A wrangle between two senior teachers of Calcutta University?s applied physics department over the position of head of the department has left the authorities dumbfounded.

Consequently, the department?s academic and research activities, including implementation of World Bank-sponsored projects, are in the doldrums.

A string of incidents since last week has shocked the authorities. To begin with, the office of the departmental head was kept locked, allegedly to prevent the entry of the new head. What?s worse, the keys could not be found.

The same evening, the lock was found broken. And important files as well as a computer with confidential records of ongoing World Bank projects had disappeared.

Concerned over the unlikely developments, the authorities have started a probe.

The trouble, officials say, began a week ago, soon after university registrar Ujjwal Basu issued a letter to a senior teacher on March 30, asking him to take over as new departmental head from April 1. The term of of the outgoing incumbent was to expire on March 31.

According to university rules, the tenure of a departmental head is two years.

Applied physics is one of the six departments of Calcutta University into which the World Bank has injected several crores of rupees for research and infrastructural development, under its Technology Education Improvement Programme.

The dispute between the two teachers came to light on April 1 when the new incumbent, after assuming charge, went to the office of the departmental head and found it locked.

That evening, the lock was found broken, and when officers inspected the room the next day, the files and a computer could not be found.

The new head immediately lodged a complaint with Manab Kumar Sengupta, secretary of the university?s science and technology departments.

Sengupta said he has discussed the matter with both the incoming and outgoing heads and had settled the matter amicably.