By Paojel Chaoba
IMPHAL, September 25: The `caste` category of students who belong to the general category have been changed to Scheduled Caste status to avail exemption of fees at the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology formerly known as DOEACC centre located at Akampat, Imphal East.
Scheduled Caste certificates have been procured by an employee with normal fees being taken from the students and embezzled by the employee without submission to the office administration resulting in losses for both the students and the institute.
Some of the students seeking admission at the institute were lured by the employee, namely S Suranjoy Singh from Heikrujam.
Working as a senior attendant at the said institute, he had taken Rs 5550 from one girl student, Elangbam (name changed) and Rs 6,800 from another student Naobi (name changed) for admitting them to the NIELIT ‘O’ level course for the July 2013-14 session. This issue was bought up to the notice of the Director of the institute, Kh Bodhachandra in a form of a written complaint from both students.
They had alleged that money was taken from them as admission fees by Suranjoy.
Suranjoy had given them a receipt of Rs 1500 only. But, when their names did not feature on the selected general category students list, the complaint was brought up to the Director.
The Director, in an office order dated 17 September, had imposed a minor penalty on Suranjoy Singh.
The notice mentioned that Suranjoy had taken money from the two students and admitted Naobi under the SC/ST scheme, but the institute came to know that the student in reality belongs to the general category. It was notified that ‘all the income obtained for admitting of general category students into O Level IT, together with the registration fees shall be deducted from the salary of S Suranjoy Singh for the month of August 2013. In case, his salary for August is not sufficient, the balance shall be deducted from his September 2013 salary’, the notification said.
It remains unclear why the Director of the institute has only imposed a minor penalty when it was a serious case and can be penalized under the Indian Penal Code.
This issue which would affect the very functioning of the institute was brushed aside as an ‘internal matter’.
Sources say that there were also many cases of forgery in the past few years which the Director of the institute has stated to be petty offences. The Director when asked if he had reported this matter of forgery to the NIELIT headquarters, said that it was not reported.
He also was not aware if the forgery was done by the lone staff or in collusion with some other staff of the institute and no concrete steps were found taken up against the said employee except deducting the amount from his salary or to check other documents which may also be forged.
It may be mentioned that the SC certificate procured by Suranjoy was signed by the executive magistrate of Lamshang, Imphal West.
SC/ ST students are provided free education by the institute except for a nominal security charge. Students are also sponsored by Manipur Urban Development Authority (MUDA), Director General Employment and Training (DGE&T). A total of 630 students are studying long term courses inclusive of Diploma in Electronics and Communication Engineering Course (DECE), Diploma in Computer Science and Engineering Course (DCSE), Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) and Master of Computer Application (MCA). There are also other short term technical courses being offered inclusive of NEILET ‘O’ among other non-formal courses. When this IFP reporter approached the director of the institute Kh Bodhachandra Singh, he said some of his staff have been found guilty of embezzling money by providing false SC certificates to the authorities. It is yet not known where the certificates are procured from but he said that the SC certificates are being sent to the issuing authorities for verification and that may take some time.
The Director`s response is surprising since the students themselves have claimed that they do not belong to any scheduled tribe and that the certificates submitted are naturally forged ones. According to credible sources, the scam has been perpetrated in the institute for some time and money has been fraudulently siphoned by some officials for their own financial interests.
NIELIT had recently set up extension centres at Senapati and Churachandpur.