Bhubaneswar: Governor Ganeshi Lal Sunday ordered a Vigilance probe into the corruption charges levelled against the Vice Chancellor of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Surendra Nath Pasupalak, by a former assistant registrar of the university, Pramod Kumar Jena.
The Governor took the step following a petition sent by Jena to the Minister of Agriculture and Panchayati Raj, who is also the Pro Chancellor of OUAT, State Chief Secretary and the Office of Governor, complaining that Pasupalak has adopted illegal means for his personal benefit and also for wrongful recruitment notifications.
Jena had reportedly retired from his post before Pasupalak took charge as OUAT Vice Chancellor March 28, 2016. Jena alleged that Pasupalak manipulated the documents in order to get full pension after retirement and accused the VC of rigging the records in the university for availing pension.
In his petition, Jena also lashed out at Pasupalak for committing grave errors in the process of recruitment for various vacant posts in Krishi Vigyan Kendras. He alleged that during recruitment, the VC rigged the university records and due to the erroneous advertisement published by the OUAT many candidates who had educational qualification different from that required for the job got selected.
Governor Lal has asked the Chief Secretary to submit the probe report within six months.