BENGALURU: Accusing Higher Education Minister Basavaraja Rayareddy of perpetrating a multi-crore rupee scam in the purchase of blank marks cards for various universities, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) state president H S Manjunatha said, “The actual market rate of marks cards and certificates of that particular quality is between Rs 8 and Rs12 whereas MSIL is charging Rs36.50 plus taxes. The actual rate for printing is Rs4 per marks card, but MSIL is charging Rs35 plus taxes. In effect, MSIL is charging more than Rs90 per marks card. The quality of the marks cards and certificates are bad and due to this it is easy to fake or duplicate them. Due to this, renowned universities are losing their reputation and students are in panic.”
The Mumbai-based vendor is a broker of MSIL and is involved in selling fake marks cards and certificates of our universities in other states, Manjunath further alleged.Squarely blaming the minister, the NSUI leader said, “The previous Higher Education minister had clearly rejected this proposal after consulting the universities in January 2016. But the present minister (Rayareddy) has forcefully gone ahead with it. This fraudulent practice is affecting several universities and students. This informaton is already with the opposition party and they are waiting for election time to damage our party’s image.”
According to Congress sources, Venugopal assured to take up the complaint seriously and examine the issue. Rayareddy did not respond to Express queries on the matter.