Santiniketan: A section of teachers and staff of the Visva-Bharati University, accompanied by guardians of students, on Tuesday led an agitation here demanding the removal of vice-chancellor Sushanta DuttaGupta.
The agitators under the banner of the Joint Steering Committee went around the campus, asking fellow teachers, employees and students to join the agitation for removal of the VC, alleging his involvement in irregularities in appointments, financial transactions and corruption.
Kishore Bhattacharya of the Joint Steering Committee claimed that work in the central office, library, Kala Bhavan and many other places stopped as the employees joined the agitation.
The development in the Visva-Bharati campus comes against the backdrop of the HRD Ministry launching a probe into the allegations of administrative irregularities levelled against the vice-chancellor Sushanta DuttaGupta.
Officials in the Ministry, however, refused to speculate whether DuttaGupta will attend the vice chancellors conference to be chaired by President Pranab Mukherjee on February 4 in view of the investigations being carried out against him.
Last week, he is understood have cleared the name of Swapan Dutta as the pro-VC of the university, rejecting the one appointed by the HRD Ministry.
Senior professor of the varsity's Hindi department Chakardhar Tripathi's name had earlier this week received the President's nod but the VC has chosen another academician for the post, said sources in the University.
They maintained the VC should have avoided holding such crucial meetings till the probe against him was completed.
