Mangaluru : Barely one-and-half years after taking charge as Registrar (Administration) of Mangalore University, the government has transferred Lokesh K.M., a professor of History at the same university.

In a dramatic development, the State government has posted a professor of civil engineering at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) under Bangalore University to the post.

But the professor, B.S. Nagendra Prakash, who arrived at the university in the afternoon on December 5 to take charge has been staying in the guesthouse on the university campus and waiting for Vice-Chancellor K. Byrappa to arrive to take charge, sources in the university said.

They said the Vice-Chancellor conducted the Syndicate meeting in the forenoon on Tuesday. Later, he left the campus to attend a programme in Udupi district. After attending the programme, the Vice-Chancellor left to Bengaluru to attend a meeting in Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.

Sources claimed that the Vice-Chancellor has instructed that Mr. Prakash take charge only after he returned to the university and Mr. Lokesh too should handover the charge in his presence. Mr. Byrappa was not available for comment.

Mr. Lokesh took charge as the Registrar (Administration) in June, 2016. Normally, the Registrars are posted for a term of three years.

In the latest transfer order issued on December 1, 2017, Mr. Lokesh has been asked to return to the parent department, that is Department of History. The order has not specified the duration of appointment of Mr. Prakash — whether for three years or “until further orders”, sources said.

However, there was no clarity on the circumstances under which Mr. Lokesh has been transferred.

Earlier, Mr. Lokesh served as the Deputy Registrar (Evaluation) in the university for three years from 1994 to 1997. He was the private secretary to the former Vice-Chancellor of the university S. Gopal.