The stories of TN's Higher Education shame

A Ganapathi, Vice-Chancellor of Coimbatore based Bharathiyar University, was arrested by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on February 3, for alleged graft in relation to teacher appointment. Ganapathy allegedly demanded Rs 35 lakh for the post and finally agreed to take Rs 30 lakh from the complainant.He was produced in a special court in that city on February 4 and remanded to judicial custody till February 16. The Higher Education Department of the Government has reported the arrest of Ganapathi to the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the University. The charges levelled against Ganapathi are serious in nature. On February 6, Tamil Nadu Governor BanwarilalPurohit suspended Ganapathi as the charges against the vice chancellor were serious.

In November 2016, former Anna University, Coimbatore Vice Chancellor R Radhakrishnan was sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in November 2016 for receiving bribes from a furniture company for the procurement dual desks to the institution. Radhakrishnan is also having another case in connection with accruing wealth disproportionate to his income is still underway with his wife named a co-accused.

There are scams and then there are scandals. This was the latter kind, which appalled and embarrassed the entire State as the details of the case emerged: Nirmala Devi, an assistant professor at Aruppukottai college allegedly tried to lure her students to extend sexual favours to top officials of Madurai Kamaraj University. Causing further embarrassment, an audio clip went viral in which Nirmala was heard advising students that they should "co-operate" with higher authorities to get high marks. She was arrested and remanded in judicial custody, while the CB-CID, which took over the case, arrested two more persons. Governor BanwarilalPurohit, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the university, appointed a senior bureaucrat to probe the matter. Meanwhile, the matter is being inquired on Apr il 16 appointed Santhanam, a former Collector of composite Ramanathapuram district.

The latest Comptroller Auditor General tabled in the Assembly said that Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has no record of the type or the number of trees in the botanical garden of its estate region. “The unavailability of tree stock register for the entire TNAU campus is a serious lapse on the part of the estate committee, the custodian of trees on the campus”, the CAG report said. The CAG report also points out several instances of mismanagement of funds at the university. In the past 32 years of existence, it accumulated Rs 29.47 crore worth of audit objections. In 2015-16, the objections were to the tune of Rs 3,7 crore. The violations include irregularities in remitting/calculating income tax, non-taxation of leave salary above ₹30,000 and excess claim as travel allowance.

In 2012, the then vice chancellor C Swaminathan of this university also allegedly indulged in making several unqualified appointments violating UGC norms.The case was taken up when postgraduate and doctoral students of the university filed a petition with the District Collector alleging irregularities in the appointments for the posts of 80 professors and assistant professors by the university.