Newly sanctioned colleges already in trouble

NAGPUR: Even before the newly sanctioned 56 junior colleges could start operation in the district, they're already in a soup.

The Maharashtra Rajya Shikshan Sanstha Mahmandal on Monday filed an affidavit in the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court saying that these colleges were given permission without verification of ground realities like infrastructure and facilities.

The teachers' body is already fighting in the court over procedure adapted while clearing proposals of 20,672 new schools in Maharashtra.

According to legal convenor of Maharashtra Rajya Shikshan Sanstha Mahmandal Ravindra Fadnavis, the junior colleges were sanctioned flouting all rules and regulations.

"In fact many of these colleges are in the close vicinity of each other, thus flouting the norm that two colleges should at least be 1.5 kms away from each other. If this is not enough, a couple of these colleges have issued advertisements about direct admission to standard XI, without even receiving nod from education department, Nagpur," he alleged.

As per the education department officials, among new colleges, 48 will have arts sections, 17 science and 19 commerce sections in Hindi, Marathi, English and Urdu mediums. Presently, the district is having 180 junior colleges.

The petitioner, while citing information under Right to Information (RTI) Act alleged of large scale irregularities during clearing of the proposals by education officers who've forwarded them without inspecting basic infrastructure and facilities.

A division bench of court had also issued notices to the respondents including state secretary of school education and deputy director of education in Nagpur returnable before June 25. "However, the state government is yet to respond to the notice and sanctioned these new junior colleges," Fadnavis alleged.

Interestingly, the education officers and deputy directors were given a 17-point guideline to clear the proposals, which includes presence of proper infrastructure like school building, classrooms, playground, library, computer along with adequate number of teachers. The officers were directed to certify only those schools which adhere to these guidelines.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/Newly_sanctioned_colleges_already_in_trouble/articleshow/3261839.cms