The Patna University (PU) administration has again got into the groove of naming chairs after eminent personalities oblivious of their utility and success.

Last Tuesday, PU vice-chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh announced that the university would have a chair after Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India, while attending the Kalimuddin Memorial Lecture series at the Urdu department. The chair would undertake research on Azad’s work and contribution to Indian society.

Teachers of the university were, however, sceptical about the success of the scheme of starting chairs after eminent personalities.

“Establishing chairs should not be just an academic stunt. Efforts should be made to ensure that these chairs benefit the students and teachers of the university,” said Bharti S. Kumar, head of PU’s history department.

Looking at the ground realties, the university administration has only one functioning chair, the Jagjivan Ram Chair for Social Democracy. The chair was announced last year and the university administration after getting approval from University Grants Commission (UGC) and funds from the ministry of social justice and empowerment this February, has started the chair but it is still to start in a full-fledged manner.

Sources said in the past five years, the university has announced chairs after many personalities, including Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan, freedom fighter and first Union labour minister Jagjivan Ram, state poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, historian R.S. Sharma and poet Baba Nagarjuna, architect of the Constitution B.R. Ambedkar, erstwhile chief minister and Dalit thinker Karpoori Thakur, among others.

A senior PU teacher, preferring anonymity, said: “The university announces chairs after personalities but after the announcement, the respective departments under which the chair has to function is least interested in pursuing the case.” Moreover, with time, the proposal file gathers dust because of lackadaisical approach on part of PU and heads of the respective departments. The senior teacher added that naming chairs is easy but the biggest hurdle is getting funds from concerned agencies in starting the chair.

VC Singh said: “Every work requires a process to get completed and there are some rules. We have approached various government agencies for providing funds for these chairs.”

The university administration after getting approval from UGC for the Jagjivan Ram Chair for Social Democracy has received funds from ministry of social justice and empowerment and work is progressing on the chair. Similarly, PU has planned to approach the Indian Council of Historical Research to provide funds to open the chair after historian R.S. Sharma. “For the chair named after JP, we will request the UGC and Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, for funds,” added the VC.