Forged minutes papers put SVNIT admin under scanner

Surat: Mired in controversies surrounding various irregularities in its administration since 2016, the authorities of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) find themselves yet again under the scanner, this time for forging documents of an important meeting in which the institute’s director, S R Gandhi, was present as the chairman.
Documents obtained under RTI from the institute and other government offices, copies of which are also in possession of TOI, shows that the SVNIT officials have “forged” documents relating to its 61st meeting of the Building and Works Committee (B&WC) held on June 13, 2017 at the conference room of Hotel Pride in Pune.

A copy of the minutes of the meeting provided by the SVNIT shows that Sanjiv Kumar Sharma, the then director of NITs, and P M Chaudhary, the superintending engineer of Road and Building (R&B) department were present in the meeting. While another copy of the same minutes shows that Sharma and Chaudhary could not attend the meeting! “In one copy of minutes from SVNIT the total number of attendees are nine, while another copy of the same meeting obtained from the R&B office shows that only seven members were present,” a source from the institute said.

“While forging the documents, the institute authorities even used the name of a top ministry of human resources (MHRD) official. The SVNIT minutes claim Sharma, who was the earlier director of NITs and a senior MHRD officer, attended the meeting. But the R&B copy shows him to absent,” the source added.

When TOI asked director S R Gandhi about the two different copies of the same minutes of meeting, he expressed his ignorance about the discrepancies and said, “It can be an error. I will get it checked.”

It is also alleged that due to serious financial irregularities, the institute could not get audit clearance of its accounts and sources hint at possibilities of forgery in several other papers that are linked to financial matter too. The irregularities related to the premier engineering institute surfaced after it did not receive its annual grant of around Rs 150 crore for the past two academic years since 2016 as it failed to submit audited accounts. The institute allegedly did not address queries raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) forcing the MHRD to stop the grants.