The West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT) will soon get a pro-vice-chancellor, higher education minister Partha Chatterjee has said.

The university has been running headless because vice-chancellor Ranjan Bhattacharya has been absent for the past three months. The higher education department recently initiated an inquiry against Bhattacharya to look into charges of administrative irregularities.

Chatterjee told Metro on Sunday that "someone senior-most from the university" would be appointed as the pro-VC shortly. The post has been lying vacant for the past three years. He would soon consult governor and WBUT chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi about the appointment.

"Bhattacharya hasn't been coming to the campus for the past few months and the administration has nearly collapsed," Chatterjee said. "A pro-VC is needed to run the university."

A department source said it was not clear whether the university would get a full-term pro-VC or someone would hold charge for an interim period.

Prashanta Kumar Mahapatra, the first and the only pro-VC to date, took charge during Sabyasachi Sengupta's tenure as VC for the full term. Although Mahapatra was appointed as full-term (four years) pro-VC in 2010, he had stepped down in 2012, soon after Sengupta's tenure ended.

The source said senior university officials had approached the department to appoint someone to the post to "restore normalcy" on the campus.

A WBUT official said the VC had been signing files from his home in south Calcutta. "There is no finance officer on the campus as Bhattacharya had suspended the person in charge. Recently, the acting controller of examination too has stopped coming as he has taken ill." He said various meetings were stuck for want of the VC.

"No one knows how the semester exam, in which 1,30,000 students would appear, would be held. We had approached the department to appoint someone as the pro-VC to get the university back on track."

"Before going on leave, the VC is supposed to alert the chancellor's office. He has to depute someone to run the university," the source said. "He has not done anything, leaving us with no choice but to appoint someone as pro-VC."

Bhattacharya, a professor of Jadavpur University, has been at the helm of WBUT for 19 months. The higher education department had on March 12 set up a four-member panel, headed by a department secretary to probe complaints against Bhattacharya after the chancellor sanctioned it.

The charges being investigated against Bhattacharya are: bypassing the executive council to run the university, suspending, serving show-cause notices or terminating the services of university officials without giving valid reasons. He did not take calls when Metro tried to contact him.