BENGALURU: State higher education minister Basavaraja Rayareddi, dismissing allegations of facilitating irregularities in the purchase of paper for marks cards, on Thursday said that he was being framed because he had a personal difference with the NSUI president Manjunath Gowda.
Rayareddi said, "Gowda had met me requesting to pass over 100 VTU Students who failed and I had refused to do so. He tried to put pressure on me in various ways, as I did not bend, he framed false allegations."
Two days ago, NSUI submitted a complaint to KPCC general Secretary K C Venugopal alleging a marks card scam saying that the minister insisted universities to buy paper from Mysore Sales International Limited (MSIL). MSIL gave the project to a third party and the marks cards prices rose from Rs 1 to Rs 5 and from Rs 30 to Rs 90.
Rayareddi also suspects the role of paper supply contractors behind the allegations against him. He said that the state government does not take decisions regarding the printing of marks cards at state universities. "The decision to get it done through MSIL was decided in a meeting of Karnataka State Council for Higher Education where representatives of all universities were present.
MSIL is a government-run institute and is liable to answer if they gave the contract to a black-listed third party.