Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, DECEMBER 2
The state government has set the record straight on Wednesday regarding the case of 150 students from Nagaland studying in an Engineering College in UP who reportedly had to leave the institute due to non-payment of tuition fees, saying the issue is purely between the Eastern Naga Students’ Union Dimapur and the concerned college.
Addressing a press conference in Kohima today, the parliamentary secretary for Higher and Technical Education, Deo Nukhu said that while the state government is making a thorough investigation into the case of the exodus of 150 students from one Divya Jyoti College of Engineering and Technology at Modinagar in UP, the matter is between the ENSUD under whose initiation the admissions were made and the college which took in the students. He said the student body and the Divya Jyoti Group of Institutions (DJGI) and its associated institution under Delhi-NCR entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) bilaterally without any intimation to the state government. The ENSUD is also said to have conducted its own selection process for the students bye-passing the department, of which, we have learnt from the newspaper reports, Nukhu stated.He said the state government conducts a joint selection test for technical and professional studies and according to the allotment of seats provided by the Central government at various institutions, the seats are then distributed to the students on a merit basis on state quota.
“However, it is regretted that without the knowledge of the department concerned, arrangements of studies were done with the help of some of the students’ organisations and not through the process of the state,” he said and underscored that the laid down procedures of the department/government must be understood by the people.
On the fate of the 150 unfortunate students who are allegedly undergoing uncertainty in pursuing their studies due to non-payment of scholarship by the state to cover their fees, Nukhu clarified that the state government has already released an amount of Rs.9,32,700 as scholarship to the students. Out of 150 students, scholarship amounts have already been remitted to the personal accounts of 107 students while the remaining 43 involve cases of non-eligibility and those who do not have bank accounts, he informed.
Technical Education director, Athili Kathipri who was also present at the press conference said students are free to pursue their studies where they want to, but in this case where the ENSUD and the DJGI have independently entered into a MoU without taking the department into confidence, and where the department has already disbursed the scholarship to the students, it (the department) has nothing to do with the issue.
“We are deeply concerned about the students but at this point, unless the state government decides to step in, the department cannot do anything,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to a copy of the ENSUD and DJGI MoU which was made available to the press, a programme was initiated by the two parties under the nomenclature ‘ENSUD Higher Educational Learning Assistance in collaboration with DJGI’ with candidates from Nagaland to be routed through ENSUD. The 12-point MoU also contained that “DJGI with assistance of the ENSUD shall shoulder the responsibilities for the re-imbursement & scholarship to all the eligible student(s) and in case student(s) does not avail the scholarship, DJGI must make an alternative arrangement till the student(s) complete the course”. The two parties also declared that the MoU will stand valid till each and every student complete their course. The MoU was signed dated 10 April 2014 by P Honko Luklem and Setsipa Sangtam, the then president and general secretary of ENSUD, DJGI general manager (admissions) Raj Kumar, deputy manager (admissions) Raj Kumar and assistant manager (admissions) Gautam Kumar Thakur.
When contacted, ENSUD president Stephen Chang admitted that the union did not collaborate with the state government, however, he asserted that “awareness was made to the public and the government in 2014 through the media”. He opined that the government should have stepped forward to advise the union if it was not on the right track, but instead, he alleged that some officials of higher education department have encouraged the members on the initiative.
Chang also clarified that the Divya Jyoti College of Engineering and Technology did not kick out the 150 students but that the students chose to leave due to immense pressure by the college to clear their pending fees. He said the ENSUD general secretary is currently in UP to take stock of the situation.
