Get FIRs lodged against fake degree holders: Himachal edu regulator

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, August 2

The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) has directed private universities to get FIRs lodged against fake degree holders. Iin the past two years, the certificates of 80 students have been found to be fake.

“About 80 degrees/ detailed marks certificates (DMC) of students sent to four private universities, barring Manav Bharti University that is already in the dock in the fake degree case, for verification were found to be fake. The universities had no record of these students. The commission has directed the universities to get FIRs registered against fake degree holders,” said Maj Gen Atul Kaushik (retd), Chairman of HPPEIRC, here today.

He said, “Two of the four universities are in Baddi and one each in Kangra and Shimla. These universities have started the process to file formal complaints.” He added that the HPPEIRC had forwarded four cases regarding degrees and DMCs submitted by students to the Vigilance Department/ police for investigation.

Last year, only 9,023 of the total 20,841 sanctioned seats in 423 courses run by the private universities in the state were filled. Surprisingly, admissions to major courses such as B.Sc, B.Tech (Electronics), B.Tech (Civil), MBA (Hospitality and tourism) and M.Com had gone down drastically. The craze for engineering courses was diminishing throughout the country and Himachal was no exception.

There were no takers for bachelors in Hotel Management, B.Com, B.Sc (Non-Medical) and BBA (Rural Management) last year. Sources in the commission attribute the decline in admissions to the reluctance of students to apply to private universities and preference to pursue graduation and post-graduation in other states.

Moreover, the fake degree scam of Manav Bharti University, Solan, and the failure of over 50 per cent private universities to recruit eligible faculty, as per the UGC norms, have also made students apprehensive.