The vice-chancellor of Rangpur Begum Rokeya University has alleged that the education minister was responsible for all the recent controversies centring around the university.
VC Prof Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah said the University Grants Commission (UGC) probe report, in which he was accused of graft, had been written purposefully on the directive of Education Minister Dipu Moni.
He was speaking to reporters at the Sagor Runi auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity on Thursday.
He was the victim of a “disgusting political tactic”, Prof Kalimullah said.
Mentioning the controversies regarding constructing works at the university, the VC said the problems were not created by him, but by his predecessor.
“I work 20-22 hours a day, seven days a week for the university,” said VC Kalimullah, who has been criticized for having remained absent from the campus on most days since his appointment.
He also stated that when the VCs of public universities made an appointment to meet the education minister at 10am, she made an appearance at 4pm. “All of us VCs had to wait for her all day.”
‘Personal attacks on minister undesirable’
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry in a statement dismissed Prof Kalimullah’s claims, saying his assertions were false, baseless and intentional.
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“The UGC sent its probe report to the ministry after completing the investigation in accordance with its rules. As the UGC is an autonomous body, there is no scope for exerting any influence by the ministry or the minister at any stage of the process,” the statement read.
Prof Kalimullah had also made some personal attacks directly against the education minister, which was undesirable, said the ministry.
The Education Ministry said that at the moment it was refraining from commenting on the statements made by the VC at the press conference, where he claimed to be innocent of the charges made against him in the UGC probe report.
“The UGC sent an investigation report to the ministry recently, making various allegations of irregularities and corruption against him in connection with some development projects. A high-level meeting will be held at the ministry soon.
“Another allegation of administrative irregularities and corruption against the VC is under investigation. After receiving and scrutinizing the report on all other statements made by Kalimullah at the press conference, the ministry will issue a statement in due course,” said the statement.
The UGC in its probe report, submitted to the Education Ministry on February 25, recommended taking legal action against Kalimullah and his close aides over corruption in three projects — Sheikh Hasina Hall, Dr Wazed International Research and Training Institute and the independence memorial Swadhinata Smarak.
Even though the projects were supposed to have been completed in 2018, the UGC committee found that only five floors each of the buildings had been developed till January.
