No delay from Raj Bhawan in appointment of Palampur agri univ VC, says Himachal governor

shimla: himachal pradesh governor shiv pratap shukla on thursday took exception to the reported remarks by state agriculture minister chander kumar blaming the raj bhavan for the delay in the appointment of a vice chancellor for the agriculture university in palampur. taking strong exception to the reported statement of kumar that files regarding the appointment of vc of chaudhary sarwan kumar himachal pradesh krishi vishvavidyalaya at palampur was pending in raj bhavan, the governor asserted that no such file was pending. addressing media persons here, the governor said the statements of the agriculture minister have appeared in a section of press, putting the blame for delay on raj bhavan. therefore, he said, deemed it proper to reply through the press and said it is wrong to put the blame on raj bhawan as no such file was pending. "chander kumar along with another minister anirudh singh had met me and i clearly told them that no such file was pending with me. but still he was blaming me for the delay, prompting me to go to the press." "i have referred the bill back to the government with comments and it is still pending with the government," he said, and pointed out that the universities across the country are largely financed by the state governments but it did not mean that they can do whatever they want, he said. the governor said the palampur agriculture university is also a technical university and the search committee consists of representatives of the icar, ugc and the governor. they initiated the selection process according to the old practice but a teacher of the university moved the high court and got the stay, he added. "i am keen that the vice chancellor (vc) should be appointed at the earliest for the smooth functioning of the university and efforts should be made to expedite the matter and get the stay vacated," he said, adding that he was not only the governor but also the chancellor of the university. governor shukla said the state government wants its say in the appointment of the vc. a bill in this regard was passed in the vidhan sabha, seeking say of the government in the appointment of the vc, he said, adding that the government wants that the governor should endorse the name sent by it for appointment of the vc. the contention of the government was that major funding of the university was being done by it but the universities across the country are funded by the state governments and it did not mean that they can do whatever they want, the governor added. shukla said even the himachal pradesh university at shimla was without a regular vc for more than a year and he had asked the government to give the name of its representative. it nominated the chief secretary, who was appointed chairperson of the search committee, but no progress has been made. "i have written to the chief secretary to speed up the process," shukla said. referring to the law and order situation in the state, the governor said it was not bad but being a small state, even small incidents get attention and as such the government should ensure that there was no breach of law. replying to a question, the governor said no minister was present at the international yoga day function organised by the ayush department on june 21. "it was a matter of pride that june 21 was declared as yoga day by the united nations on the plea of prime minister narendra modi and 137 countries were observing the yoga day", he said. "yoga day was observed in the raj bhawan and i attended the function organised by the ayush department," he said, and added that it was not a function of any political party, but the leaders across party lines should have participated in it.