'Ghost' faculties: Anna Univ sends notices to 100 colleges

CHENNAI: Governor RN Ravi has directed the Anna University to send show cause notice to 100 colleges under its affiliation in connection with ghost faculty filling seats in several engineering colleges in the city.

On July 23, Arappor Iyakkam exposed malpractices in the affiliation process of private engineering colleges to Anna University with 353 full-time faculty members found to be in the payrolls of more than one college. In the complaint to the director, Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) headquarters, it said that about 352 full-time teaching faculty members are on the pay rolls of more than one college, ranging between two to 11 engineering colleges at a given time.

Meanwhile, Velraj Ramalingam, the Vice-Chancellor of Anna University submitted the report based on the preliminary investigation. Following which, in the name of the Governor, the notices have been sent to different colleges in Tamil Nadu.

“Various colleges and professors in collusion with Anna University and AICTE are involved in a major malpractice to fake the sufficiency of qualified people that has a direct impact on the quality of education to children,” said M Radhakrishnan of Arappor Iyakkam.

“This is a complete breach of trust, fraud and cheating by the involved engineering colleges, involved professors and involved public servants of Anna University and AICTE. This requires the urgent intervention of you to save the future of thousands of students, if not lakhs who will be directly affected by this illegality and fraud,” he added.