Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit today expressed concern over Vice-Chancellors being arrested on graft charges, saying it was a case of "fence swallowing the crop."
"I am sure that all of you in the auditorium are as disturbed as I was, when we found sitting vice-chancellors and former vice-chancellors being raided and arrested for serious acts of graft and impropriety," he said at a function here.
"It is clearly a case of the fence swallowing up the crop that it is meant to protect," said Purohit, who is also the Chancellor of State universities.
In February, the governor had suspended Coimbatore based Bharathiyar University vice-chancellor A Ganapathi who was arrested on graft charges.
Ganapathi had allegedly demanded Rs 35 lakh from an aspirant for the post of an Assistant Professor. Vice-Chancellors and professors by their conduct should serve as "beacon lights" to guide the younger generation so as to achieve the goal of progress and prosperity in society, Purohit said.
Addressing vice-chancellors, principals and students from about 1,000 colleges in Tamil Nadu, Purohit said, "If the higher echelons of university and colleges do not practice moral values how can there be an expectation about the inculcation of the right values in the youth of the state?"
Universities and colleges are seats of higher learning and important to practice the virtues of transparency, efficiency and honesty, he said.
"We at Raj Bhavan have set an example in this direction in the matter of selection of vice-chancellors.
Vice-Chancellors, in turn, should follow it by totally being honest and transparent when it comes to the selection of faculty," he said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
