The controversy-ridden Jamshedpur Women?s College. (Inset) Principal Chitra Sinha. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Sept. 9: It will not be easy for Shukla Mahanty to come out of the present controversy. That?s what the Ranchi University officials had to say about the inquiry instituted against her.

Mahanty, the principal of Jamshedpur Women?s College, was asked to proceed on a month?s leave by the university. She will have to face the five-member probe team, which was constituted yesterday to probe into the allegations levelled against her.

University officials said she has been show-caused for frequently moving out of the city to attend seminars and functions, without informing the university.

Moreover, her recent step of meeting the chancellor over the ongoing spat with the vice-chancellor was objected to by the varsity authorities.

?She is over-ambitious and on several occasions found ignoring the university guidelines,? commented a senior university official.

Significantly, the three-member committee, which was constituted after an unusual incident of theft took place at the college recently had in its interim report pointed out that the college officials failed to provide the necessary documents asked by the committee regarding the theft.

Moreover, when the probe team visited the college, Mahanty moved out of the town.

The voice of dissent is also being raised by officials of other constituent colleges in the city.

?Despite being the principal of Jamshedpur Women?s College, she was appointed as the coordinator of the city-based university branch office. But she rarely visited the branch office and hence was not aware of the problems faced by the students there,? said the principal of a city-based college.

The Telegraph had reported that she had applied for the post of joint director in NCERT. University sources said she would be questioned whether she had obtained permission or forwarded her application before applying for the post.

Sources told this newpaper that Mahanty might face another controversy, this time regarding allotment of college quarters. Mahanty is already occupying two residential quarters, one at the Graduate School College for Women, and another on the JWC premises. She has failed to vacate the quarter at the Graduate School College for Women even after relinquishing the charge of the principal. Sources said in a recent incident a lecturer of Oriya department was deprived of a college quarter even after it was allotted to him.