New Delhi/Sonepat, Haryana: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which faces accusations of red tape and corruption in regulating private business and engineering colleges, appears to have rapidly approved increases in the number of seats at an institute owned by close relatives of the council’s acting chairman, Ram Avtar Yadav.
No answers: AICTE acting chairman Ram Avtar Yadav.
The Shri Balwant Institute of Technology, located on 10 acres in Sonepat, launched in 2006 with 240 students enrolled for undergraduate courses in engineering, the usual intake of an engineering college.
Just a year later, that number has gone up by 50% to 360.
The college is owned by the Chanderwati Educational and Charitable Trust, whose trustees are Rajesh Yadav, brother-in-law of AICTE’s Yadav; Sushil Yadav, who is the wife of Rajesh Yadav; and a Bhavesh Yadav. Mint could not ascertain the identity of Bhavesh Yadav.
In 2007, Shri Balwant received permission from AICTE to increase engineering seats with 60 new slots for undergraduates and another 60 for post-graduates. A sister institute of the trust was also allowed to admit 60 students for a postgraduate diploma in management in the Shri Balwant Institute of Management. The business school’s building faces the engineering college across a road in Sonepat.
There is no evidence to suggest that Yadav was directly or indirectly involved in AICTE approving the swift increase in seats to Shri Balwant Institute.
Nor is there any suggestion that the approval was improper.
But, such generous permissions from AICTE are not common.
Indeed, according to AICTE’s website, of the 45 existing private engineering colleges operating in Haryana, only 19 received permission from AICTE to increase seats in 2007. Among them, besides Shri Balwant Institute of Technology, only three colleges received permission for a large number of seat increases. The website did not mention whether all of the 45 colleges had applied for such permission.
It is unclear whether AICTE has rules in place that allow for an arm’s-length evaluation when it comes to approvals of institutes that are linked to its top officials. Mint couldn’t independently ascertain the processes that were followed in the case of Shri Balwant Institute.
AICTE, a division of the ministry of human resource development, is in charge of approving private institutes in technical and business education.
Amid growing concerns about about AICTE, members of Parliament (MP), who are part of the standing committee on human resource development, have agreed to ask for a public notice to be issued that would seek suggestions on how to improve the functioning of this regulatory body. According to one MP who attended the meeting but did not want to be named, the group of MPs met in New Delhi on Friday and included Rahul Gandhi, a general secretary of the Congress party.