With the resignation of Vilas Ramteke, assistant returning officer for Nagpur University's board of studies (BOS) polls, dirty politics has once again came to fore in the institution. Ramteke put in his papers citing 'pressure tactics' by a strong political group. However, some inquiries into the episode reveal murky affairs, with some candidates having forged documents to stake claims to nominations.
Sources revealed that nominations of 11 candidates were rejected, of which as many as five candidates had either submitted forged papers or filled false information while staking their claims. Ramteke, who is a deputy registrar, had rejected these paper since they also failed to meet the criteria required for the BOS polls as mentioned in the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994.
As per the rules issued in 2010, candidates must have at least 10 years of teaching experience, with three years as head of the department. Additionally, they must have doctorate of philosophy (PhD) in the concerned subject with five years experience in setting and valuing papers.
Ramteke initially rejected the claims of all these candidates, half of them belonging to a strong political group. Even vice chancellor Vilas Sapkal went along with his decisions, though he granted relief to three of the candidates after they submitted additional information and documents.
Among those whose candidature was rejected were JK Thakur, DR Chaple, S Narayan Murthy, AA Dhamani, AS Khandelwal, SB Kishor, Vinay Chavan and Girish Katkar. Some of them were found to have been earlier debarred from the university, but they had failed to mention it in the nomination papers. Others submitted false information about their qualifications and experience, while a few didn't possess qualifications relevant to the required faculty.
The group's leaders also met the vice chancellor to exert pressure and revert the rejections, but he categorically refused to go along with them, saying that everything had been done as per rules and regulations. The angry leaders then targeted Ramteke and demanded his removal from the post of assisting returning officer, claiming that his brother-in-law, SG Patil from Institute of Science, was one of the candidates for the polls to be held on April 17.
In his resignation letter to registrar Mahesh Yenkie, Ramteke clearly said that he was being forced to do illegal things and was being pressurized and blackmailed by leaders of a particular political faction. He further said that he didn't want to be part of illegality and therefore the NU administration should immediately relieve him from election duty.
Sources said this dirty politics has ruined the once-prestigious university and pushed it to the brink of collapse. Various scams and irregularities have severely dented NU's reputation in the recent past. Same politics with same sets of leaders was again raising its ugly head, with attempts to pressurize NU officials including VC, registrar and controller of examinations (COE). The new team led by the VC has shown some promise by not succumbing to the pressure tactics, but how long it will continue remains to be seen.
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