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J&K Lieutenant Governor (LG) GC Murmu has approved reconstitution of the search committee for recommending a panel for appointment of the Vice Chancellors (VCs) of Cluster Universities

(CUs) of Srinagar and Jammu. The decision by the LG, who is also Chancellor of Universities in J&K, to reconstitute the search committee was taken after the government came under

criticism for setting up the previous committee in “violation” of the laid down norms. Following the controversy the VCs of Jammu University (JU) and University of Kashmir (KU), who were

appointed as members of the committee, jointly represented before the LG that being the special invitees to Council of the Cluster Universities of Jammu and Srinagar, it was not appropriate

for them to be part of the search panel. “As a result of the unwillingness shown by the VCs, the file was submitted to the competent authorities for reconstitution of the search committee,”

reads an office memo issued by Higher Education department. It reads the LG, who is also Chancellor of J&K Universities, has approved Director Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Jammu

Prof Bidya Shankar Sahay as the Chairman of the newly constituted search committee while VC Islamic University of Science and Technology Mushtaq A Sidique and VC, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi

University, Prof Ravinder Kumar Sinha are the two members of the new panel. The Chancellor has further directed that names of the members should be ratified by the Council before issuance of

any formal order. Earlier, _Greater Kashmir_ had reported that the previous committee, which was headed by a senior official in civil administration, was not approved by the Council. The

order for the constitution of the committee was issued by Secretary Higher Education department, Talat Parvez.