''Outsider'' row in Chhattisgarh varsity

Raipur, Feb 22 (UNI) A day after a group of people vandalised Chhattisgarh's Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University alleging appointment of ''outsiders,'' Vice-Chancellor Laxman Chaturvedi clarified that vested interests were trying to rake up such issues for narrow gains.

The group -- including those associated with the Youth Congress and National Students' Union of India -- stormed the administrative building, smashed windowpanes and damaged furniture alleging that people from outside the state were being appointed in various posts.

Mr Chaturvedi told reporters this evening that trouble apparently brewed after the university denied permission to a few students from appearing in the LLM examinations as they fell short of attendance.

''It appears that vested interests were trying to rake up such issues,'' he said adding that no such appointment was being made.

He pointed out that the university issued advertisements to fill vacant posts reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBC). ''No person from outside the state could be appointed to fill up these posts as the list of SC, ST and OBC is prepared by the state concerned,'' Mr Chaturvedi added.

''No appointments have been made at my behest,'' he said and described as baseless and far from truth that he was trying to secure appointments for people from his home state Uttar Pradesh.

UNI JJ AC 2011