New Delhi: In a severe indictment of the HRD Ministry and the UGC, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found irregularities in conferment of deemed university status to four private institutions which were not fulfilling minimum eligibility criteria.
In its report on Autonomous Bodies tabled in
Parliament today, CAG said the HRD ministry granted the
"confirmed deemed university status" to Institute of Chartered
Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) in Hyderabad, Manav
Rachana International University (MRIU) in Faridabad, Nehru
Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya (NGBV) in Allahabad and Modi
Institute of Education and Research (MIER) in Rajasthan
against the recommendation of expert committees.
According to rules, the "confirmed deemed university
status" are conferred to those institutions which have a
standing for at least 10 years. Institutions offering courses
in emerging areas with promises of excellence and at least
five years of standing can be considered for provisional
deemed university status under de-novo category.
In each case, the UGC sets up an expert committee
which visits the institutions and recommends for grant of
appropriate status. The UGC then considers the recommendations
and forwards them to the HRD Ministry for grant of the deemed
university status.
However, the HRD Ministry conferred confirmed deemed
university status to ICFAI in December 2008 despite the expert
committee recommending provisional status, the report said.
In addition, the AICTE had informed the UGC in January
2006 that ICFAI had been conducting technical programme
without the approval of the council. However, all these
drawbacks were ignored by both the UGC and HRD Ministry in
grant of the deemed status, the report said.
In case of MRIU, the ministry conferred the deemed
university status in October 2008 despite the expert committee
recommending for provisional status. The AICTE had given
adverse report against this institute.
Similarly, NGBV and MIER were conferred full-fledged
deemed university status against the recommendation of the
expert committee for provisional status.
When an expert committee recommends for provisional
status, it shows that the institute does not meet the
requirements for confirmed deemed university status, it said.
"Audit scrutiny of records during 2004-05 to 2008-09
reveals various instances of violation of established
guidelines and specific recommendation of expert committees
and the state government for the propose of declaring in
institution as deemed to be university," it said.
PTI
