New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)Professor Mahendra P. Lama has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Sikkim Central University.

Lama, 46, who heads the Centre for South, Central, Southeast Asian & South-West Pacific Studies at JNU, will assume office from July 2.

Sikkim, the Himalayan province that was a protectorate before merging with India in 1975, is to have its first central university provided under the Sikkim University Act, 2007 enacted earlier this year.

It will be under the union ministry of human resource development and the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Lama has been educated at Darjeeling and at JNU. He has also been a member of the Sikkim Planning Commission and chief economic advisor to Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling.

The president of India would be visitor of the new university, work for which would have to start from a scratch, Lama said.

Sikkim so far has had only The Sikkim Manipal University(SMU) of health, medical and technological sciences. Established in 1995, it is the first government-private initiative in the region. SMU is recognized by UGC and approved by the government of India. (IANS)

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