Nagpur: The Nagpur University (NU) has missed its own deadline of publishing names of
blacklisted colleges on its website. As of Thursday, no notification regarding extension had been issued by NU.
While several colleges failed to fill exam forms, and issued unauthorized hall tickets last year, NU had prepared a schedule for colleges to complete formalities well in advance of the new session. As per the schedule issued in September last year, April 30 was the cut off for finalizing names of colleges qualified for grant of affiliation, as well as the errant ones.
Last year, the exercise continued till days before the start of new academic year, and the names of barred colleges were published only on June 5. Admissions were frozen at 159 affiliated colleges, leaving 444 colleges that had fulfilled the stringent norms implemented by NU. In 2016, NU had 670 colleges under its belt, but the tally came down to 444 following crackdown over lack of teachers, infrastructure and other facilities.
However, many of the 159 colleges were allowed to apply again for academic year 2018-19 after fulfilling norms like recruitment of full time teachers, principals, and building classrooms.
Vice chancellor SP Kane and Pro-VC Pramod Yeole, who is in charge of college section, didn’t answer TOI’s calls. NU officials said the list would take some more time since four days were lost in holidays, referring to the days from April 28 to May 1.
However, the explanation doesn’t hold water, since NU has been giving a long rope to colleges which may be in the process of meeting the criteria for grant of affiliation. “Several colleges have started recruitment, and are upgrading their facilities,” an official said.
On March 8, TOI had reported how colleges kept delaying local enquiry committee (LEC) inspection even after two ultimatums. As per the NU schedule, two months — November 16 to January 15 — were reserved for LEC visits. However, since “100 colleges” failed to get themselves inspected, the deadline was extended till February 10. Later, NU had claimed that these colleges had invited LEC following its January 20 warning.
However, on March 1, NU again issued a letter to all affiliated colleges asking them to invite the LEC before March 10. On both occasions, NU letters didn’t mention the exact number of colleges who haven’t done the needful to seek continuation of affiliation.
On the other hand, the education colleges have been taken off the schedule, and there is no clarity about when their list would be finalized. The LEC visits for education colleges started recently, and it may take some time to finalize the list, officials said, refusing to give a date.
