Thursday 27 April 2017

An Open Letter to Prakash Javadekar, Union HRD Minister of India ― Check Corruption and Irregularities in Private Colleges in Telangana ― Professor M.S.Rao




Dear Shri Prakash Javadekar, Honourable HRD Minister of India

It is with deep regret I am writing this open letter to you about the prevailing corruption and irregularities in private engineering, medical and pharmacy colleges in the state of Telangana. Previously I wrote an open letter to the Chief Minister of Telangana requesting him to close down fraudulent colleges in Telengana and offered some suggestions to improve in the education system. URL:  http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in/2016/07/an-open-letter-to-shri-k-chandrashekar.html.  Some of my suggestions were implemented and some of the fraudulent colleges were closed. But much needs to be still done to streamline the Indian education.  

I served in Indian Air Force and joined teaching profession with a passion to make a difference in the lives of students. I worked as a professor in various private engineering colleges in Telangana and most of them are corrupt and fraudulent who cheat faculty by not paying salaries when the faculty leave the college. They don’t give relieving letters to the leaving faculty. If faculty questions, they file wrong cases in court to drag the issues for years. For instance, I worked in a private college in Hyderabad (the name of the college is known to AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) Chairman, JNTU Hyderabad Registrar and all the faculty members of college) which did not pay my salary for more than three months. Worse, it did not give me the relieving letter at the time of leaving. When I raised the issue with AICTE and JNTU Hyderabad, it sent me the relieving order after many months by a post. But my salary is still pending from 01 July 2015. These managements cheat students by taking money through dubious means. If university officials don’t give affiliation due to irregularities, these rogue colleges approach courts to get a temporary relief. Here are my observations to bring it your notice to close down the fraudulent colleges and improve the Indian education.
  • Colleges blackmail students to pay money through various means, and students comply for fearing retribution. They pay because the internal marks are in the hands the faculty. Parents don’t want to take risk as it would adversely affect the future of their children. Hence, students end up paying money.  
  • The managements of these fraudulent colleges suck blood from students like leeches. Those who fail to pay money are punished through dubious means. They are not implementing biometric attendance of students and faculty. The officials of the affiliated universities are incompetent to enforce the biometric attendance of faculty and students because they receive bribes.  
  • These fraudulent colleges don’t pay salaries as per the pay commission but claim to be paying on records. They take the differential amount by force from the employees on the day of crediting the salary into the college accounts. If the employees fight such irregularities they file wrong cases. 
  • The faculty in fraudulent colleges face huge exploitation, unreasonable terminations, violation of fundamental rights, deprivation of benefits, and lack of adequate grievance mechanism to name a few.
  • There is a close nexus between these fraudulent colleges and political parties in Telangana. These fraudulent managements pay donations to political parties to enable the political parties to remain as mute spectators whenever complaints surface.
  • These fraudulent colleges believe in brand building rather than adding value to the students and the society.


Suggestions

I love to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Hence, I offer some suggestions to consider improving the Indian education system:
  • Close down the fraudulent colleges that have the frequent complaints from faculty and students.
  • Organize surprise inspections to find out the irregularities such as inadequate faculty, poor infrastructure, ill-treatment of faculty and students.
  • Check the bank accounts of employees whether salaries are credited promptly. Colleges are notorious in manipulating the salaries of employees. They show high salary on records but pay less salary in reality. At the time of crediting the salary, these fraudulent colleges take the differential payment through self-withdrawal forms from the staff. You can easily check these irregularities because all employees withdraw the differential payment on the same day of crediting salaries. To check this, the income tax must call for the details from the banks and the fraudulent colleges. Additionally, organize frequent income tax raids to check black money.
  • To redress the grievance mechanism in each college, there is an inbuilt mechanism in the college website to conduct it. The members involved in this grievance redressal mechanism are the employees of the colleges. How can they go against their managements? Some of them lick the legs of the management to ensure their survival. Hence, ensure that the grievance redresssal mechanism is effective by involving the outsiders with credibility to redress it.
  • Invite the experienced intellectuals with great track record and integrity to find out innovative solutions to address these challenges. An integrated efforts from all stakeholders including politicians, intellectuals, officials and colleges is the need of the hour to streamline the system.
  • You cannot build a superstructure on a crooked infrastructure. Hence, build a strong infrastructure by eliminating fraudulent colleges that harm students and damage society. Educational institutions are the temples of learning. We must maintain their sanctity.


Indians Treat Education more than a Religion

Education interlinks all religions to come to one platform in India. Indians treat education more than a religion. They treat it as sacrosanct. Unfortunately, criminals and mafia entered into it who converted education into prostitution. They ill-treat intellectuals, cheat faculty by filing wrong cases, and don’t pay salaries. Although it is a daunting task to set the house in order, it is possible by making system transparent and closing fraudulent colleges with a track record of complaints from faculty and students. There is a corruption between the officials and college owners during inspections thus harming the interests of students and faculty. To please these officials, the notorious college managements invite top officials to college events and functions and pay huge money through honorarium. In fact, it is not an honorarium but a bribe. These higher officials don’t take any action against these fraudulent colleges because they received huge bribes from them. Worse, these corrupt officials pass the information about the people who complained to alert the fraudulent management to avenge. Hence, deny permission to the top officials from universities and other education bodies to go to these colleges as special guests.

The problem with private colleges is viewing everything from commercial perspective rather than from education perspective. Previously philanthropists founded educational institutions to add value to the society. Presently managements with criminal background are founding educational institutions to exploit students to make money.

It is unfortunate that the educational institutions that are supposed to shell out students with ethical values are unethical. How can we expect ethical students and ethical society?  Remember, the day the corruption enters into armed forces and educational institutions the country will collapse. Therefore, ensure that the cancer of corruption doesn’t creep into Indian Armed Forces and educational institutions. Jai Hind!

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” ― Mohandas K. Gandhi

Note: These are my observations in the private colleges where I worked as a professor in the State of Telangana. Similar fraudulent practices occur in other states of India also.

References





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Professor M.S.Rao
Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants India




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1 comment:

  1. Sir, a bold post on the prevailing corruption and frauds in educational institutions. Hats off to your post! These managements have converted education into prostitution.
    Govt must implement your suggestions.

    ReplyDelete