Om Prakash Mishra, a senior faculty member of Jadavpur University, assumed charge as the interim vice-chancellor of North Bengal University for a period of two months on Tuesday.

For the past 55 days, there was no VC at the varsity.

This is the third time that Mishra has become the NBU interim VC.

In January this year, he left his office after the end of his second tenure.

In NBU — the oldest and largest varsity of north Bengal — the VC’s post had fallen vacant after Subires Bhattacharyya, who was in the post, was removed following his arrest by the CBI in connection with the SSC scam.

Soon after assuming his office, Mishra took up the task to appoint the officiating registrar and finance officer of the varsity. These posts were also vacant for weeks, leading to a financial deadlock in the varsity.

Nupur Das, the secretary of the undergraduate council of the NBU was made the officiating registrar. Amlan Majumder, an associate professor and former head of the department of economics, was made the officiating finance officer.

Both these posts had fallen vacant on February 28. As a result, students, especially those in varsity hostels, officials, employees and faculty members were facing several inconveniences.

“The first job I did today (Tuesday) is to fill up the posts of the registrar and finance officer. We will now take up all other issues which the varsity has been facing for the past two months,” Mishra, whose permanent job is that of a professor at the department of international relations at JU in Calcutta, said.

The interim VC also initiated the process to approve a number of documents that were pending at his office.

“He also had a brief interaction with the principals of all 32 affiliated colleges of the varsity. They spoke on issues like the new curriculum and credit structure of undergraduate courses,” said a source.

Mishra’s joining, followed by the appointment of the registrar and finance officer, has come as a huge relief for students, teachers, officers and employees of the NBU.

Over the past few weeks, there had been a financial crisis at the varsity as the post of the finance officer, who is the drawing and disbursing authority, was vacant. Also, many academic and administrative jobs had come to a halt.

“We were planning to have a meeting today (Tuesday) to finalise a delegation to visit Calcutta to seek the intervention of the governor and the higher education department so that these posts are filled. It is good that the VC has joined. But the higher education department should now find out a person who can be a permanent VC or else, this problem will crop up again after two months,” said a senior official of the NBU.

Mishra, while interacting with newspersons, said PremPoddar, an educationist from Kalimpong who stays in London now, was expected to join as VC at the Darjeeling Hill University on March 23.

“We will both work in consonance,” Mishra said.