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Nagpur University's VC, pro-VC step down

Nagpur University Vice-Chancellor B P Chopane and Pro-Vice Chancellor Yoganand Kale today resigned owning ''moral responsibility'' for the the bogus degree and mark-sheet racket that has so far led to the arrest of 14 university officials and several college teachers.

The two faxed their resignations to Maharashtra Governor and Chancellor P C Alexander, Professor Yoganand Kale said this morning. He said he had already surrendered his official car and hoped that the chancellor would accept their resignations and make alternative arrangements.

The scandal, perhaps the most sensational in the 75-year-old history of the university, led to a public outcry for resignations of the two top functionaries. As many as 14 officials, including Registrar and Controller of University Examinations Prakash Mistry, Dean of Engineering Faculty Hemant Thakre and Assistant Registrar Yadav Kohachade and some college teachers have already been arrested.

The racket was unearthed a month ago when the Anti-Corruption Bureau trapped Kohachade while trying to bribe some police officers. Investigations so far have revealed that bogus degrees and mark-sheets were being issued in the university since 1994. The police have said that the money involved in the racket ran into millions of rupees.

''I accept moral responsibility for what has happened,'' Professor Kale today said, and added that when the people he represented did not want him to continue, the best course for him was to quit. He said he tried his best to straighten the administration.

An RSS activist, Professor Kale was appointed pro-vice chancellor for a second term two years ago. He is an economist and former principal of a local college. Dr Chopane is a former director of technical education.

Ironically, the demand for their resignations came from the recently formed Univeristy Reforms Committee headed by another RSS activist and former professor of Government Engineering College, R H Tupkari.

The committee has also demanded that Arun Bhatia, the anti-corruption crusader and former municipal commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation, be appointed as the vice-chancellor of Nagpur University.

Meanwhile, with the police almost every day identifying more and more people involved in the scam, the university's working has been paralysed. The vice-chancellor could persuade, with great difficulty, Dr S S Dara, Director of Board of College and Administration, to act as officiating registrar. Dr Dara is due to retire on July 31.

The racket has also brought to an abrupt halt the university's diamond jubilee celebrations.

Companies and educational institutions have begun issuing advertisements advising Nagpur University students to not apply. Some foreign embassies have referred to the university for verification degrees of job-seekers in their countries.

The police is now interrogating a dean of the Government Medical College who reportedly burnt some mark-sheets and university records in the college premises immediately after the arrest of the officiating registrar Prakash Mistry.

UNI

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