Anna University, Tamil Nadu’s leading institute of higher learning, is in the eye of a storm following the disclosures made by the Directorate of Vigilance and anti-Corruption (DVAC) that it has filed cases against ten academicians including former controller of examinations Professor GV Uma in the award of marks during revaluation of answer sheets.
Following complaints from students and some of the staff members about large scale discrepancies in the University, the anti-corruption wing of the State Police found that during the April-June 2017 period, 3,02. 380 student applied for revaluation after which 73,733 students passed while 16, 636 students improved their marks.
A Narayanan, who heads an NGO and had filed a series of PIls against the universities in Tamil Nadu since 2012 told The Pioneer that there is nothing shocking in the disclosures by the DVAC. “Not only Anna University, all universities in Tamil Nadu are cesspools of corruption in matters related to admission, examination, awarding marks and appointments,” said Narayanan.
The First Information Report filed by the DVAC states that during April-May 2017 when Prof Uma was the Controller of Examinations, she conspired with some of the faculty members and demanded Rs 10,000 from each student to give them more marks at the time of revaluation.
“The suspects forged the answer sheets by altering the marks to benefit the students who paid the bribe and destroyed the answer scripts of the students for whom they awarded the enhanced/pass marks in the revaluation done during August 2017 at Tindivanam and thereby caused disappearance of evidence related to the criminal offence committed by them,” states the FIR.
One of the investigating officers of the DVAC said that several thousands of engineering students paid bribes to enhance their marks. “Many of them would have graduated as engineers from the Anna University,” he said. There has been complaints from many industries bodies that the quality of students, especially that of engineering graduates from Tamil Nadu was not satisfactory. The Anna University saw a change of guard recently when MK Surappa from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore was appointed as the vice-chancellor.
This had caused resentment among Tamil chauvinistic parties who questioned the action of the Chancellor (Governor of Tamil Nadu) in appointing a non-Tamil to the highest post. The crack down on the corrupt practices in the university comes immediately after Surappa taking over as the vice-chancellor.
“This has nothing to do with the Anna University campus here in Chennai. There are hundreds of colleges spread across the State which are affiliated to the University and the probe is centred on them only,” Prof Surappa told media persons on Saturday. He said the DVAC crack-down was the follow-up of an internal probe ordered by him, after he received many complaints from students.
The DVAC official also said that except for Prof Uma all nine accused were from other colleges affiliated to the University. But Prof Uma said she has no role in the revaluation scam cracked by the DVAC. “While I was holding the post of COE, I took action against 1040 examiners after huge deviations were found in the revaluated marks. But the University did not take any action except against the 1040 delinquent examiners,” said Prof Uma who was suspended from office on Friday.