MUMBAI, Sept 29: The College teacher-coaching class nexus suffered yet another blow today when in a surprise raid Minister of State for Education, Anil Deshmukh, caught Prof Aditya Lohana, a staffer of Mithibai college, red-handed while teaching at a private tutorial in Vile Parle (west). Prof Lohana now faces suspension for flouting service rules that prevent a college professor from taking up another job parallely.Also, with the raid the state government has made it clear that it would go to any extent in its attempts to break the nexus between college professors and coaching classes. The minister's initiative is likely to spur the education department, which had till now restricted itself only to issuing show-cause notices, to conduct more such raids.Today, some 60-odd students of Prof Lohana's accountancy class crammed into a tiny, poorly ventilated room opposite the Vile Parle station were taken by surprise when the minister, followed by his carbine-wielding guard, barged in. Before anybody couldrealise what was happening, he was already grilling the professor. He brushed aside Lohana's argument that his college salary was not enough for him to meet his expenses saying, ``how much money do you need.'' Prof Lohana charges Rs 4,400 per student for the TYBCom accounts classes. Lohana's Test Series, a compilation of most-likely questions and their answers, is also very popular.The minister also spoke to the students and discovered that a majority of them were from Mithibai College. ``These students first attend Prof Lohana's lecture in the college and then come for his special classes. This really defies logic,'' Deshmukh said. When Deshmukh asked one of the students how much he had paid to join Lohana's Classes, the petrified boy could only manage to mumble: ``I have joined the class for free.'' The minister gave him a sarcastic pat on his back and moved on to other students.``We know that a lot of lecturers and professors are teaching in coaching classes, but I wanted to send out a clear signalthat the government will even start raiding such classes to embarrass these teachers who only take active interest in their coaching classes and not in the regular college lectures,'' Deshmukh later told Express Newsline.Meanwhile, so far 13 teachers have quit their respective colleges in favour of coaching classes after they were served show-cause notices by the state government. Deshmukh informed that a detailed report on how Prof Lohana was caught would be sent to the joint director of higher education, R R Pardeshi, who also heads a committee that is probing the college teacher-coaching class nexus.
