Karnataka Government will shortly finalise the panel of names for the post of vice chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) before this weekend. The State Governor, TN Chaturvedi who is also the chancellor of the University is likely to announce the appointment of the new vice chancellor by May 30 and he will take charge on June 1, which is the Foundation day of the University.

The search committee for vice chancellor is headed by Padmanabhan, former Census commissioner. Other members of the Committee include Dr. Shyamsundar, former vice chancellor, NTR Health University and Dr. Mohan Das, director, Sri Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram. The Committee is likely to hold a meeting in Bangalore on May 20 and send the list of names to the chancellor.

Some of the well-known names which figure in the list are the present incumbent Prof. R Chandrashekar who is seeking a second term along with Prof. H Veerbhadrappa, registrar head of the department of paediatrics at Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College and Dr. Srinivas Gowda, registrar, RGUHS, Dr. Bhaskar Rao, principal, SDM Dental College and Dr. PS Prabhakaran, director Kidwai Institute of Oncology.

According to sources in the medical education department, the probable candidate in race could be Prof. H Veerbhadrappa, registrar head of the department of paediatrics at Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College who is a Fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics. He was also a member of the senate and syndicate of the RGUHS from 1999 to 2003. In addition, he was also the chairman of Post Doctoral Fellowship Committee on Neonatology.

Another suitable candidate is Dr. Srinivas Gowda who is the present registrar at RGUHS. He was also a prominent candidate for the post of vice chancellor when the present vice chancellor Prof. R Chandrashekar was being short listed in 2002.