180 teachers of Punjabi varsity forged papers for higher salary

PATIALA: A major recruitment scam has been exposed following inquiries ordered by secretary, higher education, Anurag Verma, who is also holding the charge of vice-chancellor of Punjabi University. The probe brought to light the fact that the university was paying higher salaries to new recruits on basis of fake salary certificates produced by them.
While the inquiry report is yet to be tabled before the vice-chancellor, TOI has come to know that as many as 180 teachers who were recruited during the past nine years, had produced fake salary certificates shown to have been issued by their previous employers.The inquiry committee looking into matter found that the salary certificates did not match with the income tax returns filed by their teachers, which helped them nail their lie. Surprisingly, the IT return details were appended with the fake salary certificates attached, along with other documents, by these teachers.
Documents assessed by TOI showed that in one such case a lecturer showed her monthly gross as Rs 28,795 in her last pay certificate from a private management institute, whereas in her income tax returns she mentioned the same as Rs 11,000. Similarly, in another case the gross salary was shown as Rs 30,075 per month while the IT returns revealed a gross salary of Rs 14,495 per month.
Besides the inquiry committee has got its hands on a number of documents, which show that several recruitments in the university were made by bypassing the minimum eligibility criteria of applicants. In one such instance, of the 18 assistant professors recruited by the university in the department of business management in 2009, 14 were found to be ineligible. Similar, recruitments were also made in other departments and also in the neighbourhood campuses of Punjabi University, which are still being scrutinised by the inquiry committee. In many cases, more number of teachers were recruited against posts that were advertised, a member of the inquiry committee maintained. “Why such discrepancies were overlooked by the selection committees is yet to be brought into the perspective,” said another member of the inquiry committee.
Sources revealed that so far the inquiry team had come across 180 such cases, which were still being looked into. The number is likely to go up, the member said.
Senior prof Pushpinder Singh Gill, who is former dean academics said that, “The recruitments were done before my term. An inquiry is already marked into it.” Former dean B S Bhatia, said that, “It will be inappropriate to comment on the issue as I have not seen the inquiry report. However, all wrong doings are set to be exposed in the inquiry. Verma said that he was yet to receive the final report in this regard and once it was tabled before him, appropriate action would be taken.
7 cases of SC/BC certificates found fake
In another inquiry report, which has already been submitted to the VC, it has been found that as many as seven candidates selected as assistant professors in the university had managed to get jobs on the basis of fake SC and BC certificates. While, six were recruited in engineering college, one was absorbed in the department of economics. “The inquiry report has been submitted to the VC,” prof Sumanjit Kaur said, who had been entrusted with the inquiry.
Meanwhile, 14 other inquiries ordered by the VC last week are yet to be completed. These had been marked following a number of complaints filed with the authorities after the previous VC, Dr Jaspal Singh, had resigned from his post.