‘Provisional’ tag gets 116 ineligible students into Punjab colleges

The institutions,run by the Continental Group at its Jalvera campus in Fatehgarh Sahib,admitted as many as 116 students who had not cleared the qualifying examinations during admission in 2012. While the Continental Institute of International Studies (CIIS) admitted 9 such students; the Continental Institute of Engineering Technology (CIET) accounted for 75; and the Continental College of Higher Studies (CCHS) admitted 32 such students.

The colleges say that the students have been granted “provisional” admission in accordance with rules framed by Punjab Technical University (PTU) to which they are affiliated. They add that none of the admissions has been “confirmed”.

The university,washing its hands of such admissions,says that such students are the “responsibility” of the college and will not be given degrees till they are registered with the university. PTU officials state that only initially “unqualified” students can be admitted but they are not “registered” as bonafide students till they clear the qualifying examinations. Till a student is registered,he or she cannot be allowed to appear in the semester examinations. The university also has a last date before which,the students have to clear the qualifying exams.

Almost all of these unqualified students,however,have appeared in the first,second and even the third semester university examinations many months after the last date of the qualifying check. Their roll numbers were duly issued by the university and even their results had been declared in most cases.

Though the university officials deny supporting such “unethical” admissions,the racket allegedly runs with their complete knowledge. Sources state that some of these “unqualified” students alleged that they had “paid” Rs 20,000 to the college to get them registered with the university’s academic branch.

The college denied having taken any such money from the students but a series of e-mails exchanged between the Continental college employees over the issue (copies of which are with The Indian Express) show that students were indeed charged Rs 20,000 for the illegal registration during the time of admission.

Discussing the case of one such student,an employee of the college wrote: “This is to inform you that the said student was one of the 75 students retained with reappear (sic) and had deposited Rs 20,000 as per our laid policy…. I would request you to please look into the issue where the result of many of CIET students is still pending even after having written their exams and paying Rs 20,000.” The whole admission process,it seems,had been kept a well-guarded secret by the college employees. When it reached the chairman and managing director of Continental Group,Lt Col B S Sandhu,in May this year he was forced to issue a strongly -worded directive to the college principals,among others. It states: “For admission for the year 2012,following number of students with supple (sic) has been admitted: CIIS-09,CIET-75,CCHS-32. Total: 116. 43 students among these are with more than three supple and some with 5 to 7 supple. This is where the ‘road block’ has been to achieve good academic results. This was not supposed to be done. The admission for this year to CIIS,CIET and CCHS will be done on ethics and as per the criteria given below: 90 per cent admissions will be with clear pass students. 8 per cent may be with one supple only. 2 per cent students may be with maximum 2 supple only no student will be enrolled more than two supple. All out efforts will be made to bring in students with high percentage in the 12th exam. No students with poor academic record will be enrolled. Ensure strong ethics in admission. Any breach or deviation of this will be viewed seriously.”