Pro Chancellor of Symbiosis International (Deemed) University Dr Vidya Yeravdekar has warned students and universities against trusting middlemen for admissions to any universities and recommended directly contacting the administration staff for any enquiries. This comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lodged an FIR on October 2 against a P. Rama Rao for pretending to be an official from the Prime Minister’s office and contacting Yeravdekar to procure an admission in Symbiosis. Yeravdekar warned that students should not fall for offers from such impersonators who might guarantee admissions to universities in exchange for money. Speaking to The Indian Express on Wednesday she said, “When I first got the call I ignored it because I knew the PMO would not call like this. Then when he called me three to four times I reached out to someone I knew in the PMO and they confirmed that no such person works there.” According to CBI’s FIR, Rao had also contacted Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam in Andhra Pradesh using a PMO letterhead for requesting AC rooms. She added, “I don't even entertain (minister’s) personal assistant’s calls even if the minister wants an admission. We have a 10% management quota but we ensure that a student has passed the entrance exam and maybe missed out on just the GDPI (Group Discussion and Personal Interview) or something. So, we ensure that we also put in meritorious students and if at all someone comes from any ministry, I ensure that I speak to the minister directly and ensure that it's actually his recommendation…Because we don't know who's talking on the phone from where.” Yeradvakar described another similar experience: during Eknath Shinde’s tenure as a Chief Minister, she got a call from the CM’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) recommending admission for a student. When the same OSD called her a day later to request admission for another student, it was revealed that the first call was made by an impersonator, who was then nabbed by authorities within 24 hours. Yeravdekar warned university administrators to verify identities and not fall for fake calls from supposed government officials. “If they are calling me, I am sure they are calling so many other institutions. Some institutions might just fall prey. They (impersonators) take money from students. If at all, the students should go and directly approach the management instead of meeting up with some middlemen and politicians,” she added, calling on universities to declare on their homepage the names of officers students can get in touch with for admission enquiries.
