Won’t release FAO’s salary: Jt director

Nagpur: A day after joint director for higher education, Anjali Rahatgaonkar, lodged a complaint regarding “illegal appointment” of Nagpur University’s finance and accounts officer (FAO) Raju Hiwase, she has now threatened not to release his salary. Rahatgaonkar stated that till chancellor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and higher and technical education department clears Hiwase’s appointment, his salary wouldn’t be released.Hiwase did not respond to repeated calls from TOI.
Reiterating her stand, the director clarified that Hiwase has obtained Master of Science (MS) from BITS Pilani, which was not recognized by the apex bodies like AICTE and he also failed to produce equivalence certificate of MS degree with ME/MTech offered by traditional universities like NU. The new FAO does not even have PhD and he has just made submissions of his thesis.
“I was shocked to see all stakeholders gang up to select a particular person of their choice, despite not meeting the eligibility criteria. Right from the selection panel to interview committee and even in Management Council, Hiwase found smooth sailing. Moreover, same set of persons led by the VC were present at all stages of selection,” Rahatgaonkar alleged.
VC SP Kane, rejected all charges, while accusing her of insulting not only the VC’s post but also entire Management Council. “She (Rahatgaonkar) came as a representative of higher education director and doesn’t hold any right to question NU authorities. Hiwase’s selection was made by not one, but by three panels. All members in these panels were well respected, highly qualified and experienced,” he said.
How can they make mistakes? They must have thoroughly checked his credentials before clearing his name,” the VC said.
Breaking his silence, two days after the incident, the VC added that Rahatgaonkar overstepped her jurisdiction and she had no right to question the selection made by NU panels. He also defended BCUD director Dinesh Agrawal, who was accused by Rahatgaonkar of allegedly using “unparliamentary” language”. “While addressing me, he just uttered “Yeah chindhi bazaar band karo (stop this petty dispute)”. He didn’t say anything to her. It was me, who asked him to apologize and remove these words from the minutes of meetings. Agrawal immediately agreed and orally tendered apology thrice. However, Rahatgaonkar went ahead to defame both of us publicly, which was unbecoming of stature of her post,” Kane said.