Silchar, May 6: Dilip Chandra Nath, a professor in the statistics department of Gauhati University, was appointed the new vice-chancellor of Assam University by President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday.
With Nath's appointment, Assam University finally got its permanent vice-chancellor after six months. The post remained vacant since former vice-chancellor Somnath Dasgupta resigned on November 13. By the virtue of being the senior-most professor, Ranju Rani Dhamala is working as the acting vice-chancellor of the varsity at present.
Nath, an original inhabitant of Jellalpore under Katigorah Assembly constituency of Cachar district, passed matriculation from Boleshwar Higher Secondary School and higher secondary from Gurucharan College here.
He completed his graduation from Cotton College, Guwahati. Nath did his post graduation from Delhi University and completed his PhD from Banaras Hindu University.
Later, he did his post-doctoral research from Duke University, US. Nath has authored as many as 160 research articles.
While talking to this correspondent over telephone, he said his main duty as a vice-chancellor would be to make Assam University one of the best institutes of higher education in the country.
Nath said improving the rank of the varsity would also be his main priority. He sought cooperation from all teaching, non-teaching staff and students of the varsity.
Asked about his alleged closeness with the RSS, Nath said it was a wrong allegation and his qualification was not less than any of the vice-chancellors of the universities in the Northeast.
"People, who are not aware of my qualifications, are making this wrong allegation against me. I am a teacher and I will go to everyone who will call me," he added.
There was an uproar following the appointment of the varsity's present registrar Sanjib Bhattacharjee a few months back as he was the former president of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a students' wing of the BJP.
During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Mritunjoy Bhattacharjee was appointed the vice-chancellor of Assam University and it was then alleged that his appointment was made on the ground of his closeness with the RSS.
Later, Bhattacharjee had to resign following a massive student movement in the varsity.
Assam University Teachers Association (AUTA) today urged the university authorities to make adequate security arrangements on the campus tomorrow so that semester examinations could be started.
The examination was scheduled to begin on Tuesday but was postponed following students' agitation and later police-student clash.
The Assam University Non-Teaching Association, which earlier demanded the authorities to hold the examination from May 15 as they would need some time to make arrangements to hold the examination, today said they would assist the teachers in conducting the exam.
Assam University, a central varsity, was established in 1994 at Dargakona, about 20km fromSilchar. The varsity has 35 departments under 16 schools on major disciplines.
