Jalgaon students get NU degrees

 NAGPUR: A group of nearly 15 persons wearing traditional dresses reached the Nagpur University premises on Friday evening claiming that they belonged to a college in Jalgaon and their 71 students had failed to receive the identity cards of university’s Sanskrit diploma examination.

They claimed their college was affiliated to the university since 1964 and that their students were regularly appearing in the examinations. The university administration couldn’t believe that a college from Jalgaon was affiliated to the university. Some colleges in Bhusawal are still affiliated to the university, but Jalgaon has the North Maharashtra University. Similar courses in Sanskrit are offered by the Ramtek-based Kavi Kulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University with statewide jurisdiction.

Enquiries by examination department revealed that the college, Shri Chakradhar Gurukul Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, located at Faizpur in Jalgaon was actually not affiliated to the university but its students were appearing in NU exams as external candidates since last many years. They had also filled up the forms from university’s Dr Ambedkar Law College.

This year, its coordinator failed to collect identity cards as he went visiting Kumbh Mela. As a result, all of them were marked absent in the exams. The college was not even aware that exams ended a couple of weeks back. They asked pro-vice chancellor GS Parasher to hold the exam again or else the students would lose an year.

The pro-VC assured an enquiry but ruled out holding the exams. Acharya Mahant Salkar Baba of the Chakradhar College along with others disclosed that their college was affiliated to Nagpur University since over four decades as there was no other university in the entire region at that time.

“We provide Sanskrit Shastri degree, which is a five-year course. The diploma Sanskrit Pragya is of one year duration while diplomas Sanskrit Visharad and Shastri were of two years each. After completion of all three diplomas, the university awards the degree of ‘Shastri’ to the students,” he said.

Another office-bearer added they were conferred degree at every convocation and 137 of its students had finished the course. University officials have a doubt regarding why the college continued its affiliation to NU when another university had come up in Jalgaon or why it had not sought affiliation from the Sanskrit university.