CHENNAI: Denying corruption in the Anna University admission process, officials of the university and the Higher Education department on Tuesday said that data on the number of admissions, provided by the Public Information Officer in a Right To Information Act response, were flawed.
“There was no corruption in Anna University admissions 2017. There was a discrepancy in data on the total number of students in the attendance register and the number provided in the RTI response, because the data given in the RTI response were wrong. It was a mistake made by the Public Information Officer of the university,” admitted MK Surappa, Vice-Chancellor of the university.
An RTI application filed by an employee of the university revealed that students’ names in the third semester attendance register did not tally with the list of students admitted in 2017-18. In the ECE department, of the 180 seats in three batches in the College of Engineering, Guindy, there are 39 candidates who did not figure in the 2017-18 admission list given under the RTI.The employee, who filed the RTI plea, levelled allegations that these excess seats may have been filled in an illegal manner.
However, Surappa and the principal secretary to the Higher Education department Sunil Paliwal, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said the initial response given by the Public Information Officer had a list of students, who were admitted through Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions 2017 and had left out students who were admitted through other quotas.The university is permitted to admit 20 per cent students (12 seats) in addition to the 60 allotted seats in each branch. Out of the 20 per cent additional seats, five per cent seats each are allocated for industrial consortium, wards of NRI parents, wards of those employed
in the Gulf and foreign nationals.
“A total of 158 candidates were given seats through counselling and the rest given admissions through the additional quota of 20 per cent seats,” said Surappa.“The names of students, who got admissions through this quota, were missed out in the RTI response,” said Paliwal, adding that all students, who were pursuing their third semester, also studied the first two and that no one was admitted through lateral entry. “The Vice-Chancellor will take appropriate action against the person who gave wrong information through RTI,” he said.