Politicos, money bags own ‘doomed varsities’

64 Politicos, money bags
own ‘doomed varsities’

Politicians, property dealers and industrialists-turned-politicians dominate the
list of those who owned the 44 deemed universities that are set to lose ‘deemed’
status in the coming days.

D Y
Patil, Governor of Tripura, is an old Congress hand and runs an education empire
in Maharashtra. Only one of his institutes — D Y Patil Medical
College, Kolhapur — will lose deemed status.

Then,
there is S Jagatharakshakan of DMK, Minister of State, Information &
Broadcasting, whose Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research will lose
deemed status. BIHER has six constituent institutions involved in teaching
medical and dental science, nursing, physiotherapy and engineering.

Another
one from DMK stable is former Union minister M Thambidurai who runs St Peter’s
Institute of Higher Education and Research in Chennai. It has 1,051 students
enrolled in engineering, computer science, electronics and IT at
undergraduate/postgraduate level and also research. AIADMK leader A C Shanmugham
runs Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute and has dental and engineering
colleges affiliated to it with more than 6,000 students on its rolls.

Santosh
University in Ghaziabad is run by P Mahalingam, personal physician to BSP
founder Kanshi Ram. It has 800 students on its rolls and claims to have three
colleges teaching medical, dental and paramedical sciences. BLDE University,
Bijapur, Karnataka is run by Congress MLA M V Patil. It has a medical college
named after Patil’s father late B M Patil and has nearly 400 students on its
rolls. Former Congress MP R L Jalappa is at the helm of Sri Devraj Urs Academy
of Higher Education & Research, Kolar in Karnataka. Industrialist M A M
Ramaswamy, a member of Rajya Sabha and belonging to JD(S), runs Chettinad
Academy of Research and Education. It has two constituent institutes, a hospital
and research institute and a nursing college.

If it’s
Haryana, it has to be a property dealer. No wonder Maharishi Markendeshwar
University, Mullana, with a host of engineering and medical colleges as its
constituents, is run by Tarsem Garg who started as a property dealer and
graduated to become education entrepreneur.

(Source: The
Times of India dated 20.01.2010)

(Compiler’s Note:
The above is an incomplete
list. The remaining must also be owned/controlled/managed by vested interests.
In such a situation, is policy reform or corrective action possible?)