43 colleges under CBI lens for fraudulent recognition

Forty-three private colleges, including 10 from Karnataka, are under the CBI scanner for fraudulently taking recognition from an autonomous body of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to offer various teacher education courses.

The CBI has identified Bengaluru-based Dr P Revathi Reddy, the regional director of Southern Regional Committee (SRC) of National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), as the key to unravel the major racket operating in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Reddy has been named in an  FIR and a preliminary enquiry the premier investigative agency registered last month to probe the illegal favours granted to private colleges by giving them recognition to run about 15 different bachelor, diploma and masters courses in teacher education in gross violation of the NCTE norms.

NCTE, which was coordinating in the clean-up drive, has repatriated Reddy to her parent cadre in Andhra Pradesh. Reddy, said to be politically highly connected, was with NCTE for the past three years, said CBI sources.

Of the 10 Karnataka private colleges that benefited from the scam are Kalidas Teachers Training Institution of Vijayapura, Kalidas College of Education of Bagalkot and BAJSSBEd College situated in Haveri.

Reddy conspired with S Sheshadri Reddy, secretary of Sree Sarada BEd College – shown as functioning from Plot No 241/2, Akuledu village of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh – to allow the institution to take admissions for providing Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) degrees, overlooking the fact that it lacked basic infrastructure and academic facilities, stated the FIR.

The CBI said Sree Sarada Education Rural Development and Animal Welfare Society had “fraudulently” applied last June seeking recognition for its Sree Sarada BEd College.

The college planned to offer two-year D.El.Ed course from the academic session beginning this year.

The SRC rejected the application last August after detecting that it did not have certain genuine land documents. On the college representation, the SRC decided to have a fresh look and processed the application accepting the reason that certified land records were available.

Among the various irregularities ignored by the SRC under the influence of Dr Reddy was that a show-cause notice issued to the college was withdrawn and, instead, a letter of intent was given to them on a false building-completion certificate.

This, despite the fact that the institute’s built-up area of 3,481.87 square feet spread over two floors was under construction, which was a violation of NCTE (Recognition Norms & Procedure) Regulations, 2014.

The NCTE regulation mandates that a college should have a minimum built-up area of 15,000 sq metres and a land area of 2,500 sq metres to admit just 50 students for a teachers’ programme.

At its meeting on May 2-3, Reddy also ignored another objection that the college did not have the requisite number of staff and faculty in the Sociology and Psychology departments to teach B.Ed students.