VARANASI, June 3 -- After over four months since the retirement of Prof Sudhir Kumar Jain as the vice chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University, the varsity still awaits the appointment of a new VC. At present, rector Prof Sanjay Kumar is the acting vice chancellor since January 7. As the time goes by, both the faculty and the students have the same question in mind regarding who will be the new VC. Several faculty members are also concerned over the delay in appointment as in the absence of a regular vice chancellor, any policy decision related to academics and development of the university cannot be taken. "The university is like a family, and the vice chancellor serves as its guardian. In the absence of the (regular permanent) vice chancellor, any policy related decision cannot be taken, new faculties cannot be recruited, any decision regarding the academic development of the university cannot be taken," said Prof Om Shankar of department of cardiology, IMS-BHU. He said that the vice-chancellor is the ex-officio chairman of the Executive Council, the Academic Council and the Finance Committee of the university. In the absence of the regular VC, the decisions related to these matters cannot be taken. So, I request the Visitor to ensure appointment of the BHU vice chancellor at the earliest. Another professor, who doesn't wish to be named, said that students, faculty members are curious about when the BHU will get a new vice chancellor. He said that the union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan should pay attention to the matter soon so that the BHU gets a new vice chancellor and ongoing buzz comes to an end. BHU alumnus and ex national general secretary of All India Youth Congress Manish Upadhyay says, the BHU is being run by an acting vice chancellor and under an acting VC, any policy related to students' welfare, faculty members and academic development can not be framed. Therefore, the union government should ensure that the BHU gets vice chancellor as early as possible. It may be mentioned here that even before the completion of the tenure of the vice chancellor Jain, the Union Ministry of Education started the process of appointment of vice chancellor at BHU. For this, online applications were sought from the eligible candidates till October 11 through the advertisement for the post on the websites http://www.education.gov.in and https://www.bhu.ac.in/ in September 2024....