NIT, Raipur - Gone to the dogs?

Does the picture on the left say anything? This is the present condition of the National Institute of Technology, Raipur. The college has literally gone to the dogs and this picture shows the condition of the college corridors presently.

Leaving aside the picture and the corridors, the most recent issue haunting the students of the college is a very serious one. Read on to know why.

Back in April-May 2006, the college authorities had committed a faux pa. The then Director of the institute (Dr. Bal) had taken the liberty to break the rules pertaining to the conduct of examinations and valuation of answer books and that act of his is creating grave problems for the students now.

The institute had been granted autonomy by the State Government and was allowed to conduct its own examination for the students. However, the instititute still had to obey the guidelines set by the Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University, Raipur for the conduct of examinations and the valuation of the answer books.

What the then Director Dr.Bal did in April-May 2006 was, he allowed the re-valuation of papers of candidates who appeared in supplementary papers. Now, this was totally against the constitution set by the Pt.RSSU as there is no such provision in the rules of the University which allow the re-valuation of supplementary papers of a candidate. I fail to understand how the Director and the former Examination Controller (Dr. K.K. Sugandhi) managed to do this when everybody knew it was against the rules.

The Pt. Ravi Shankar University after learning about this, promptly sent the college authorities a warning regarding the issue asking them not to go against the rules and hence not to conduct the re-valuation of supplementary papers. However, the former Director and Examination Controller of NIT-Raipur paid no heed to the warning and went ahead with what they intended to do. Not only this, they also broke the rules again in the Nov-Dec 2006 examinations and once again allowed re-valuation of supplementary papers. Many candidates benefited from this process of re-valuation of their supplementary papers and they were declared "pass" by the college.

Time passed by and Mr. Bal was removed from the post of the Director because of his corrupt activities and Dr. Sugandhi was recently handed over the charge for the Director of the institute. From 2007 onwards, the college strangely stopped allowing the re-valuation of supplementary papers and went back to following the guidelines set by the University. Maybe the college authorities sensed that something was wrong.

Now, after two years when Dr. Sugandhi sent the mark sheets and degree certificates of those students who were declared "pass" after the re-valuation of their supplementary papers in April-May 2006 and Nov-Dec 2006, to the Vice Chancellor of the Pt. Ravi Shankar University for his signature and seal on them, the VC firmly refused to sign on those certificates saying that those exams were not conducted under the guidelines set by the University and so there is no way that he is going to approve the results for the same. This almost caused Dr. Sugandhi to choke and he rushed to meet the Governor of the State. Unfortunately for him, the Governor also supported the VC's stand on the issue and he was told that the whole examination process that was adopted by the college two years back was illegal.

The sad part is that now after not being able to convince the VC or the Governor, Dr. Sugandhi has ordered all the students who had benefited from the re-valuation of their supplementary papers in the year 2006 to re-appear for the concerned subjects.

Many of these students have already passed out from the college and are working in different places across the country and they were just waiting for their final degree certificate. This order has shocked them thoroughly and they just can't stop hurling abuses at the present Director. Others who are still in the college are worried that they might lose their jobs which they secured after the campus placements due to this sudden announcement of them having a back log. Then there is also the possibility of their examination timetable being set such that their back log paper clashes with the current final semester paper. This will again make them lose their job and will waste six months of their time.

I was really pissed off with the college authorities when I saw the notice. Not that I was one of the students who had benefited from the illegal re-valuation, but because many of my friends are mostly going to suffer because of the ignorant and adamant attitude of Dr. Bal and Dr. Sugandhi. This was totally careless and uncalled for. I have convinced a few of my friends to approach the High Court on this matter and we will be filing a petition soon. I hope the Court cracks down hard on both the accused. I also filed an eighteen point Right to Information application today asking minute details about the whole episode. This will provide us with crucial information for fighting the case.