The government will take strong action against anyone found meddling in college admission process to suit his own interest, state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee has said. The remark comes following several reports that members of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) are allegedly involved in the admission process in colleges in exchange for money. Chatterjee said that the Education Department would convene a meeting with college principals next week to discuss a host of issues, including alleged admission-related malpractice. “If such an allegation against any student leader is found to be true then exemplary action will be taken against that person. We will not tolerate such issues in colleges,” Chatterjee said on Saturday evening. The minister also asked students and their parents to lodge a police complaint if they were approached by anyone offering help in the admission process in exchange for money. “After that (police complaint), we will initiate action. They (parents) should also send copies of the (police) complaint to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO),” Chatterjee said. Police had arrested four Trinamool Chhatra Parishad leaders from two colleges in the last 24 hours on charges of extorting money from students for admission to undergraduate courses, misappropriation, and cheating. On Saturday, two TMCP leaders, Sayan Mukherjee and Zahir Ahmed, of south Kolkata’s Prafulla Chandra College were arrested after they allegedly took Rs 25,000 from a student with the promise of admission in the college, a senior police officer said. On Friday, Kolkata Police arrested senior TMCP leaders, Ritesh Jaiswal and Lal Saheb Gupta, for allegedly extorting money from a student who sought admission in Maharaja Shirish Chandra College.
