Academic appointments at NDA under CBI scanner
Pune, June 6: The CBI has registered a case against the Principal of Pune-based National Defence Academy (NDA) and four other employees of the institute, including a professor, on charges of irregularities in the appointment of teaching faculty to the organisation's different posts, the agency said on Wednesday.
Separate Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams on Wednesday conducted raids at multiple locations, including residences and official premises of the accused persons, in Maharashtra's Pune.
Besides NDA's Principal Omprakash Shukla, Jagmohan Meher - a Political Science professor, Vanita Puri - an associate professor of Chemistry, Rajiv Bansal - an associate professor, Maheshwar Roy - the Head of Department of Chemistry and other unidentified persons of the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) and IDS (Integrated Defence Staff, which comes under Ministry of Defence) have been named in the CBI FIR.
The FIR was lodged on Tuesday following a complaint of malpractices in the recruitment process of teaching faculty in the academy.
"We registered the FIR based on a complaint about irregularities in the selection/ appointment to different posts of teaching faculty in NDA," a CBI official said in Delhi.
The CBI FIR alleged that that certain faculties of the NDA entered into a conspiracy with unknown officials of the UPSC and the IDS.
"They got selected and appointed to different posts of teaching faculty in NDA without possessing teaching/ research experience as prescribed by the UPSC and as required by Ministry of Defence on the basis of the forged and false certificates," a CBI official said.
The CBI alleged that Shukla has been the Principal of the institute since 2011. "The alleged corruption in appointments started way back in 2007, when he applied for the post of professor," the official said.
"These teachers were involved in fudging the API (Academic Performance Indicators) of candidates who were not qualified to be professors at the institute," he said.
According to the CBI, the appointment of civilian academic officers, including the Principal, Vice Principal, professors and assistant professors at the NDA, is done through the UPSC.
The UPSC publishes an advertisement inviting applications in which qualification criteria are listed. Two important criteria are API points and academic experience.
At least 15 such appointments have been made since 2007, sources said.
Meanwhile, a NDA spokesperson said: "NDA was apprised of the allegations by the CBI team on their arrival this morning. They had with them relevant documents authorising the procedure for necessary investigation."
"It is clarified that the issue related to allegations of submission of inappropriate documentations by some academic faculty members at the time of their selection and appointment to NDA by the UPSC. Necessary actions are at hand and due procedures will be followed," he added.
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Guarantees: Siddaramaiah accuses Maharashtra BJP of 'spreading lies,' warns of legal action
Mumbai/Bengaluru, Nov 16: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said he was considering taking legal action against the BJP’s Maharashtra unit alleging it 'spread lies' about the five guarantees implemented by his government.
Addressing a press conference in Mangalwedha in Maharashtra, Siddaramaiah said: “They (BJP) have given a false advertisement in order to mislead the people of Maharashtra." Furthermore, he said he was considering filing a suit against the Maharashtra BJP for spreading lies about the guarantee schemes and its implementation. The Chief Minister said all the five guarantees have been effectively implemented in Karnataka benefiting crores of people.
The CM, his deputy D K Shivakumar and a host of Karnataka ministers, who are campaigning in Maharashtra for elections are reaching out to the people on the five guarantees being implemented in their state.
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These five guarantees are 'Gruha Jyoti' offering up 200 units of free electricity for household connection, 'Gruha Lakshmi' providing Rs 2,000 to the women heads of BPL families, 'Shakti' fare-free bus travel scheme for women, 'Yuva Nidhi' offering Rs 3,000 and Rs 1,500 to unemployed graduates and diploma holders respectively and 'Anna Bhagya' food security scheme for BPL families.
Siddaramaiah asked the Maharashtra leaders to visit Karnataka and see for themselves if the guarantees have been implemented or not.
Attacking the BJP-led Centre for ‘injustice’ to states in the devolution of taxes, the Chief Minister said Karnataka every year pays more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore as central tax and in return gets only Rs 60,000 crore.
"According to my information, Maharashtra is paying Rs 8.78 lakh crore, whereas the Maharashtra government is getting Rs 1.30 lakh crore. That means the Government of India is causing injustice to Karnataka and Maharashtra though Maharashtra is number one and Karnataka is number two in the country in tax collection," the Chief Minister said.
According to him, Maharashtra government was getting 15 paise for each rupee it pays, while Karnataka gets about 13 to 14 paise out of every rupee. Also, the CM said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed that the five guarantee schemes could not be implemented and if at all implemented, the state governments doing so will go bankrupt. While this was the case, the BJP has ironically come up with guarantees in Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
