KSOU 'unruffled' by Guv's letter on irregularities

VC says every thing was done with Governor's approval

 Despite receiving a strongly worded letter from the Governor’s office about holding an inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) about a fortnight ago, the varsity remains unperturbed about the same.

In fact, it has put the ball back into Raj Bhavan’s court, pinning blame directly on the Governor, who is chancellor of all the universities in the State.

On August 30, the Governor’s secretariat had written to KSOU, asking it to furnish comments about six irregularities related to appointments and examinations, which were recently exposed by Deccan Herald. The Higher Education department had initiated a detailed probe into the matter and had subsequently written to the Governor requesting him to constitute an enquiry committee into the allegations.

“KSOU has grossly indulged in many unlawful practices and these actions tantamount to bringing  down the dignity and decorum of a university in the eyes of the society. The distance mode of education has been reduced to a farce and fraudulent manner of getting fictitious degrees. Mass copying is rampant, marks cards are tampered with in large numbers, temporary teachers are regularised and promoted with the UGC pay scales even when the candidates have no UGC-prescribed qualifications,” reads the four page letter from R Kalpana, under secretary to the Governor.

KSOU Vice Chancellor M G Krishnan who is yet to respond to the letter, said that there was no need for an enquiry.

“Not only has there been a CID inquiry into one of the irregularities, the government has given the varsity a clean chit with regard to the appointments made. KSOU has taken all decisions in accordance with the statutes, which were all approved by the Governor.

Everything was done with the Governor’s approval,” he added.

Krishnan said that he would respond to the letter in the next ten days.

The Governor’s office has sought explanations into the marks card scandal; appointment of 21 temporary Regional Directors and causing illegal additional expenditure to the University to the tune of Rs 2 crore per annum; illegal regularisation of 28 temporary assistant professors; mass copying incidence; Shashikumar, electrician illegally promoted as junior engineer; V Sadashiva non-teaching staff, water supply operator promoted illegally as junior engineer (civil).

Marks card scandal

There were allegations of more than 300 incidents of tampering of marks cards of BA and BCom students between 2006 and 2010, under the supervision of deputy registrar (administration) Dr H L Vishwanath. “He has been continued in service and promoted as Registrar (administration). This issue needs to be enquired into,” states the letter from the Governor’s office.

KSOU is said to have created non-sanctioned temporary posts and extended terms of regional directors, violating Section 2(9)(3) of the general recruitment statute of 2004 of the KSOU Act and hiked their salaries resulting in serious financial burden on the varsity.

“The appointments and continuation of the RDs is illegal. Enchancing their emoluments despite annulment of earlier emoluments by the Governor has resulted in financial losses to the varsity,” the letter states.

“Since S A Shashikumar has not completed ITI and only NTC, he should not be considered as a diploma holder. Hence he cannot be considered as junior engineer (electrical),” the letter reads.