Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday alleged massive corruption in the appointment of vice chancellors in universities in the state, reported IANS. Purohit is the ex-officio chancellor of the state universities and said he found out that paying bribes was essential to secure a vice chancellor’s post.

Purohit was speaking at a conference on higher education in Chennai.

“When I came to the state as a governor, I learned the vice chancellors’ appointments were not done on the basis of merit,” the Hindustan Times quoted him as saying. “Instead of considering the eligibility and merit of the candidates, money had been considered as the prime reason.”

Purohit said he was working to eliminate such malfunctions and had appointed nine vice chancellors only on the basis of merit.

E Balagurusamy, a former vice chancellor of the Anna University, told the Hindustan Times that corruption was rife and no vice chancellor had been appointed without money since 2005. Balagurusamy alleged that no action was taken even after he wrote several letters to then governor K Rosaiah about the issue. “I welcome the current governor for exposing this issue,” he said. “I believe that he would rectify this problem.”

Earlier this year, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption filed corruption cases against two former vice chancellors of the Anna University and the Dr Ambedkar Law University.

However, Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister KP Anbazhagan said that the state government is not involved in the appointments. “The vice chancellors’ appointments are being done by the governor,” he said. “The government has not done anything in these appointments.”

Minister D Jayakumar said that the government would take action against erring officials. “If the governor discloses the names of the vice chancellors who have paid money to get their posts, we would take proper action,” he said.

Pattali Makkal Katchi MP Anbumani Ramadoss said it was the governor’s duty to bring to book those involved in corruption and asked what Purohit had done to weed out such malpractices.