Clamping down on what officials are now calling ‘‘a multi-crore scam in distance education programmes’’, Uttar Pradesh Governor and Chancellor T V Rajeswar has fired vice-chancellors of four state universities. This decision, taken yesterday, was made public today.Those shown the door were Z H Zaidi, V-C of MJP Rohilkhand University, Bareilly; N C Gautam, V-C of Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, Jaunpur; P K Singh, V-C of Kanpur’s CSA University of Agriculture and Technology; and, P P Singh, V-C of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Modi Nagar, Meerut.They have been asked to go in view of ‘‘gross irregularities related to centres of distance education programmes and for defrauding and selling degrees to gullible students’’. Rajeshwar had earlier instituted an inquiry into the matter.According to a Raj Bhawan release, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has been informed of the decision.With the sacking of the four V-Cs, the tally now stands at six. In July, Rajeswar had sacked R P Singh and Ramesh Chandra, V-Cs of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut and Bundelkhand University, Jhansi respectively, on similar charges.The distance education programmes of Bareilly University was launched in 2003 while that of Jaunpur University in 2004 with centres in places as far Salem in Tamil Nadu and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. This, officials said, was in violation of territorial jurisdiction of these universities.The Raj Bhawan release said all transactions were managed by facilitators who were based in Delhi, Mumbai and Allahabad. Jaunpur University alone had 677 centres. Degrees of M.Sc, MBA, MCA, BPT (Physiotherapy), M.Tech, LLM and M. Phil were handed to students though they had no value, an official said.Rajeswar’s action followed separate inquiries conducted by Vinod Malhotra, Principal Secretary, Environment and G B Patnaik, Principal Secretary, Agriculture.
