Following differences in the untimely reconstitution of  Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee, Anna University Vice-Chancellor MK Surappa has now submitted his resignation from his post as chairman of the TNEA and TANCA (Tamil Nadu Common Admissions (for PG courses) committees to Higher Education Secretary Mangat Ram Sharma.

Surappa’s decision to resign from the committee is likely to affect the annual engineering counselling that has been seamlessly conducted by Anna University so far for the past 22 years. Single Window Counselling for admission to BE, B Tech, and B Arch degree courses was in practise since 1997 which was replaced with online counselling for engineering admissions in 2018-19 by the state government.

According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, it is being alleged that Higher Education Secretary who was just a member of the committee thus far has made himself the coordinator of TNEA while Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) commissioner R Vivekanandan has been made Co-chairman of the committee, to undermine the current Chairman. The report further adds that Vivekanandan is a registered PhD candidate in the university.

It is also being speculated that with the resignation of AU Chairman from the committee, the onus of holding the counselling this year may go back to DOTE.

The DC report also quotes a source from the University who explained that these committees were constituted in November 2017 for a period of three years and that there was no need to reconstitute the present committee in just a year.

Former director of IIT Ropar, MK Surappa was appointed as the VC of Anna University after a gap of nearly 2 years in April 2018. TN Governor Banwarilal Purohit made the appointment whose term would extend for a period of three years. Anna University had been headless since the exit of its former VC Rajaram until then.