A.A. Khan

Ranchi, Dec. 31: Frogs remain frogs even when they are pulled out of the well.

The comment summed up the disappointment in university circles in the state while greeting the five new appointees, whose names were announced this afternoon, to posts of vice-chancellors and pro vice-chancellors. The state, felt many observers, had just missed another opportunity of discarding the beaten track.

The appointees included two college principals, a professor and two pro-vice-chancellors. A.A. Khan, the pro vice-chancellor of Ranchi University will take over as the vice- chancellor of Ranchi University (RU) while J.N. College principal M.P. Singh has been named the vice-chancellor of Vinoba Bhave University at Hazaribagh. The pro vice-chancellors at Hazaribagh, Salil Roy, has been brought back to RU in the same capacity while the principal of Birsa College, Khunti, J.L. Oraon, will take up his position at Hazaribagh. A professor of zoology, Arvind Kumar, will be the new pro vice-chancellors of Sidhu Kanhu University at Dumka.

All of them are said to be the nominees of the chancellor, who, claimed state government sources, refused to entertain any name that figured in the list of HRD minister Pradeep Yadav, who had rushed back from Mumbai yesterday to hold ?consultations? with Razi. While the government was keen to have Ranchi College principal Anand Bhushan as the vice-chancellor of RU, these sources claimed, his name did not find favour with Razi.

The state government, claimed these sources, was actually in favour of administrators as new vice-chancellors. But the chancellor, they alleged, had his own agenda, driven by regional Congress leaders.

The names were announced by the Raj Bhavan at 5 pm today, only after the chancellor had boarded the flight for New Delhi.

Only three vacancies were to be filled up, that of two vice-chancellors and a pro-vice-chancellor. But by elevating one of the pro vice-chancellors and shifting another from Hazaribagh to Ranchi, Razi managed to oblige five people, all from the teaching community.

Two of them, Singh, who is a teacher of zoology, and Khan, a teacher of physics, have been known as good academics. Roy has been a teacher of chemistry and has served earlier as the dean of students? welfare. Oraon, on the other hand, is a teacher of history.

But barring Singh, none of the new appointees have been good administrators and their track record does not seem to have inspired much confidence in university circles.

The HRD minister welcomed the announcements and hoped that the new appointees will deliver.

While he himself would not say another word ?on record?, sources close to him said the chancellor had merely strengthened the government?s resolve to make amendments in the University Act and take the power of appointment away from the Raj Bhavan.