KOTTAYAM: A meeting of the Mahatma Gandhi University Syndicate held on Saturday decided to repeal the affiliation of 21 colleges, which were sanctioned by the previous UDF-appointed syndicate, following non-compliance of requirements. A decision in this regard was taken on the basis of a report submitted by a syndicate sub-committee, which was constituted to inquire the alleged discrepancies in sanctioning of new courses and colleges by the previous syndicate.
The committee’s report was tabled in the syndicate on Saturday and was approved by the meeting. The committee also recommended the University Syndicate to request the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to conduct a detailed inquiry into the situation in which the Syndicate’s inspection committees filed a favourable report for the affiliation of these colleges, which lack basis infrastructure facilities.
The committee-led by P K Harikumar conducted inspection in as many as 60 colleges under that university. The committee found that 21 of them did not comply with the mandatory requirements and lack basic infrastructure facilities.
The committee observed that physical condition of many colleges were extremely poor. While some the colleges did not have own building, some of them were not capable of maintaining the secrecy of the exams.
“The functioning of the colleges, which do not gave basic facilities and flouted the norms of UGC and the University, could not be permitted. Such institutions should be controlled to maintain the reputation and standard of the university.
“The affiliation of these colleges shall be cancelled as per Chapter 23 and section 14 of the University statutes 1997,”it said.
Meanwhile, the committee also noticed slight deficiencies in the infrastructure facilities of another 15 colleges and asked these colleges to rectify the deficiencies before April 2017. They should submit a deficiency-rectification report to retain the affiliation.
The committee also observed that a detailed inquiry was needed to expose the discrepancies behind the sanction of these colleges and to initiate legal action against the offenders. “An inquiry of VACB shall be sought from government in this regard,” the report stated.
The committee was constituted in the first meeting of the new Syndicate, which was held on July 16, 2016. K Krishnadas, R Pragash, P K Padmakumar, A Jose, and K Sherafuddeen were the other members in the committee.