NEW DELHI: Dismissal of Adya Prasad Pandey, vice chancellor of Manipur University on Friday, made him the fourth VC to be given marching orders by the NDA government. The government has been acting tough on allegations against VCs of central universities with 10 VCs having to face action so far. In all, seven VCs have been either sacked or have resigned following inquires being set up against them by the MHRD.President Ram Nath Kovind , who is a visitor to central universities, gave his assent to a proposal moved by the HRD ministry to remove Pandey, after a probe set up by the ministry found that there was substance in the allegations of administrative and financial “irregularities” made against him.Pandey was appointed as VC in October 2016 and has been at loggerheads since the first year of his term with the Manipur University Students’ Union, teachers and staff unions demanding his removal over alleged administrative, financial irregularities and dereliction of duty.Following widespread protests, the state government also requested the Centre to take note of the situation citing law and order concerns. Pandey was put under suspension and was showcaused by the inquiry committee set up to probe charges against him in July 2018.According to HRD sources, Pandey had stayed away from the university for 189 days between October 2016 and May 2018. Despite his reply to the showcause notice, there are enough reasons for his removal, such as making purchases without inviting tenders and other financial and administrative irregularities.Among the sacked VCs two were UPA appointees. In 2016 the then President Pranab Mukherjee had given his approval to remove Pondicherry University VC Chandra Krishnamurthy over allegations of plagiarism and misrepresentation and Visva Bharati VC Sushanta Dattagupta.The other VCs who received marching orders were Jawahar Kaul of Hemawati Nandan Bahuguna University. Kovind accepted the resignations of Motihari ’s Mahatma Gandhi Central University VC Arvind Kumar Agarwal in November 2019, VC of Tripura University, Vijay Dharurkar , in September 2019 and Allahabad University VC, professor Rattan Lal Hangloo in January 2020.