nashik the vicechancellor vc of the nashikbased yashwantrao chavan maharashtra open university ycmou dr r krishnakumar 52 passed away at 4 am on tuesday at shivganga criticare hospital in nagpur due to a prolonged illness he is survived by wife two daughters and sonsinlaw a sister and mother he was suffering from abdominal septicemia wherein pus had developed in his stomach he was undergoing treatment for it he also had a muscle problem and had taken some steroids for it we were informed about the seriousness of his condition on monday night when he was put on a ventilator at 1130 pm registrar of ycmou prakash atkare said he inculcated a sense of discipline in the working of the university and we will follow his principles and ideologies he added krishnakumar had taken over as the vc of ycmou on march 4 2010 prior to which he was the principal of dr ambedkar mahavidyalay nagpur a doctorate in physics he was also the director of the college and the university council of tukdoji maharaj university he was the special secretary to the governors of kerala and bihar as well besides being a member of the national assessment and accreditation committee naac he was also appointed as the general secretary of the association of indian universities that comprises of 450 universities he published 14 research papers at national and international levels during his tenure and participated in 10 international 21 national and 39 statelevel conventions on being asked about the appointment of the new vc atkare said we have informed the governors office and a decision on handing over the responsibilities will be taken in two to three days incidentally some employees were not happy with the vcs functioning in the recent past as he worked from home in the university campus they demanded a deputy in his place to make things easier we wanted a provc to be appointed keeping in mind his deteriorating health condition but we were not against the vc some employees said although he had begun the process of appointing a provc it could not be completed only the nagpur and mumbai universities could appoint a provc said m g chandekar a member of the academic council of ycmou chandekar said im in the academic council at the university since 1998 krishnakumar did an important work of serving the purpose of the university by promoting the reach to the unrich concept he started nontraditional courses like training cobblers maid servants and gardeners he took education to the tribals he however could not accomplish certain goals that he had set he wanted to have virtual centres as technology plays an important role in distance education he was very conscious about the quality of the phd degree being imparted and had even made some attempts at improving it but could not do so