Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Monday, May 22, 2017.
Staff
from Dombivali College allege inaction, despite a fact finding committee
submitting its report in 2015 highlighting irregularities in college's trust
and finances.
An RTI report
filed by Rajarshee Shahu Maharaj Karmachari Sanghatana has revealed that the
management of KV Pendharkar College, Dombivali, failed to act on the recommendations
of fact finding committee that was appointed by Mumbai University in 2015. In
its report dated March 23, 2015, the committee that was constituted after a
discussion was held in a Senate meeting, had asked the college authorities to
appoint an administrator on its board. But, the RTI inquiry has found that the
college administration had been sitting on it since two years.In 2015, 35
members of the Sanghatana, who are also former employees, which include
non-teaching staff of the Dombivali college, had complained against the college
and its chairperson for administrative issues and irregularities in the
management. They also went on a 45-day hunger strike in March.
They have now
approached the higher education minister and demanded that the college's
University affiliation be withdrawn.
Prabhakar
Desai, chairperson of the trust which runs the college has however challenged
the fact finding report's authority and said that only the charity commissioner
has power to challenge or verify his credentials as a chairperson of the trust
and the case is already going on before it. Desai also pointed out that
Pendarkar College received `A Grade' by University of Mumbai last year and that
the allegations against the college and him are baseless.
Dilip Medhe,
president of the Sanghatana told Mumbai Mirror, "The fact finding report
was discussed before the Board of College and University Development meeting on
23rd June 2015.However, the university is using a technical reason that the
College has filed a Writ petition in the Bombay High Court as an excuse to not
act on this report. So now we have demanded that a committee should be
constituted to look into the matter which includes representatives of charity
commissioner and University."
The
committee's key findings included:
- Prabhakar Desai who claims to be the chairperson of the college trust (Dombivali Shikshan Prasarak Mandal), that runs the college, failed to furnish any proof showing he was authorised to be the sole representative of the management.
- The college has been granted permanent affiliation, but no `academic audit' has been done by the University.
- It is necessary to appoint an administrator on the college.
- Legal validity of Chairman Prabhakar Desai's post, and existence of the public trust should be confirmed by the University from the regional charity commissioner's office.
- After going through the income-expenditure statement it appears that the college has charged excess fees.
- The college is running un-aided courses using staff from aided sections against a Director of Higher Education circular.
Desai, has
refuted all these findings, "I did not get the copy of the same report
from University when I asked for it under RTI," he said. He also said
that, "If the state government and the University want to cancel the
affiliation we have to shut down the college.They should think about the future
of 5,000 plus students."
Desai added
that the cases are pending before the Bombay High Court and the charity
commissioner.
M. A Khan,
registrar of Mumbai University confirmed that the fact finding committee report
was discussed in the meeting of Board of Colleges and University Development.
Khan said, "We have sent the file for legal opinion for further action. We
are awaiting the response from legal team."
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