Gangtok: Mahendra P. Lama is likely to be going to assume the chair of the Vice-Chancellor of Sikkim Central University in the month of July. In a communication with the Mail, Prof Lama said, “I am expecting to take up the assignment in July.” He further said he has already been communicated the appointment by the Union Human Resource ministry. Lama who teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University has become the youngest Vice Chancellor in India at the age of 45.He was become the associate professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2000. Simultaneously, he holds the chair of economics advisor to the Chief Minister of Sikkim. He is specialized in the field of regional cooperation and integration in Asia. Prof. Lama was selected V.C. from a panel of very eminent and senior academicians and administrators recommended by the search committee appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. When his appointment was announced, Prof Lama was in the tour to Malaysia on the invitation of the Government of Malaysia as an eminent international visitor. There he also attended 21st Asia pacific roundtable conference in Kualalampur. Prof Lama was given the assignment by Asian Development Bank and South Asia Centre for Policy studies of making an independent review of the entire SAARC activities since its inception 1985. The location of the university, however, hasn’t yet been specified. YangYang, the constituency of Chief Minister Pawan Chamling is expected to be the location of the university. But Nakul Das Rai, the lone MP of the state, has refuted the speculation. Chief Minister Chamling also had told in a conference that the university’s location can’t be claimed by the state government or the people of the state, it should be left to the University Grant Commission and Union Human Resource Development’s fact finding committee who have visited the state recently. Soon after the assumption of the post by MP Lama, the ground work of the new university is expected to be swung into action in the state, a source said.
