MKCL fails to provide mark sheets to nearly 2 lakh students

Nagpur: Nearly two lakh students of Nagpur University (NU) are in a quandary after MKCL, a firm blacklisted by many universities, refused to provide them printed mark sheets.
Over one lakh first semester students are yet to receive their mark sheet, even though their examinations were held around a year ago. Nearly the same number of second semester students are also waiting for their printed results, as per the NU exam section officials.
The students, who want to get scholarships or fellowships from various national and international organizations or join the defense courses, need original mark sheets. For its own admissions, NU had asked the colleges to accept printed copies of online mark sheets, which could be verified from the portal.
Though Board of Examination and Evaluation (BOEE) director Prafulla Sable could not be contacted, officials from his section told TOI that MKCL refused to print the mark sheet citing that the same was not mentioned in their contract.
“They (MKCL) told us that their role was limited to providing software and online mark sheets to the students, while the printing job was entrusted to the Inter-Institutional Computer Center (IICC) run by the university in its campus. Ever since MKCL was rehired by NU, we continue to face one or other problems. As a result, the majority of results were inordinately delayed,” officials said.
According to them, the earlier service provider, Promarc, used to give the printed mark sheets and also stationery required for tabulation register. “Now, we have decided to print the mark sheets on our own, which would either be done by the IICC or any other firm. It would again require NU to spend lakhs of funds,” they said.
Shashikant Deshpande, the MKCL coordinator for the city, who is running its franchisee, refused to take up TOI’s calls. Similarly, NU coordinator for the Pune firm, Satish Shende, also did not pick up the calls. Queries to vice-chancellor Subhash Chaudhari and pro-VC Sanjay Dudhe, forwarded through a public relations officer, were not answered.
NU officials said the VC had again insisted officials from the finance section to clear MKCL’s Rs86 lakh bills at the earliest. “The VC continued with MKCL for its second semester exams even after the state government terminated its contract. Now, it will obviously demand its dues. Ideally, the dues should be recovered from Chaudhari, who had taken full responsibility for MKCL’s failure during the Senate meeting. He should not ask officials to clear the bills of a blacklisted firm even after its ouster. Instead, the firm should be punished by forfeiting its deposit, as it had inordinately delayed the results,” they said.