In a major shutdown, the higher education department has decided to cancel the No Objection Certificates (NOC) of 62 degree colleges for breaching the norms for the past three to six years. These colleges are spread across the state and will not be able to carry out the admission process in 2019-20 until new orders by the government. More than 151 colleges were under the scanner of the Education Department since June 2018 for flouting the norms prescribed by the UGC, Rajasthan Pollution Control Board, Higher Education Department, and local municipal bodies.
The inquiry was conducted by a high-level committee which was headed by the Principal Secretary of Education and few government college principals. They submitted their final report after much delay due to the ongoing assembly and Lok Sabha polls last. The department sought an inquiry report from all the 151 colleges, including pictorial evidence of infrastructure and facilities, affiliation letters, balance sheets, pupil-teacher ratio, pupil-classroom ratio, detailed designation wise report on the teachers.
“The government carried out an inspection to cross-examine the claims made by the colleges by a team headed by renowned government college principal. The inspection team mentioned gross irregularities by 62 colleges in the report submitted by the team. They recommended cancellation of their NOCs which was approved by the government. Most of the colleges denied NOC was due to two factors – shortage of teachers and poor infrastructure,” said a government official.
The inquiry report has also been shared with the respective district collectors to look further into the matter. They have been directed to ensure that these colleges don’t take any fresh admissions this educational year.
The status of the remaining 89 colleges is put on the hold status by the inquiry committee. Officials said that most of these colleges don’t even have the required number of toilets, parking facility and are falling short of the required number of books. They have been asked to meet the norms within two months and submit a report afterward. Officials have refused to share the names of colleges who were denied NOC to avoid panic among the college students.
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