Racket in NE quota seats

By Prasanta J Baruah

GUWAHATI, June 3 — The underdeveloped north-eastern hill States have always been a happy hunting ground of senior bureaucrats, police officials and other Central Government officials from outside the region to take advantage of the quota seats from these States to help their wards to pursue engineering and medical courses in colleges outside the region. However, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan authorities appear to have to gone one step ahead – making the entire racket official. An official letter dated 16.5.98 Ref. No. F-5.6/98-KVS (AC/ACD) Admission -XII issued by the Joint Commissioner (Academic) Puran Chand from the Sangathan’s Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg office at New Delhi says it all. The letter under Subject: Opportunity for selection in Engineering and Medical Courses from North East Region through nomination states that the Commissioner of the Sangathan has directed and authorised to provide admission in the Kendriya Vidyalayas of North East Region in Class XII to provide opportunity for the nomination of Engineering and Medical courses. The letter goes on to say that the request to facilitate the admission by relaxing the admission rules in the month of January and February for class-XII had been pending for long. The modus operandi was that sons and daughters of senior Kendriya Vidayalaya Sangathan officials, principals, office bearers of teachers’ associations etc from States where it is tough to get into medical/engineering courses could take admission in January/February in any of the Central Schools in the North East region and sit for their examination in March/April and then go on to claim quota seats in the professional courses in outside colleges from that North East States.

Interestingly, the official letter goes on to say that in the year 1998, this opportunity was availed by Amrita Anand and Surendra Majumdar by getting admission in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Tuli in Nagaland in the month of January, 1998 by special permission from the Joint Commissioner. In both cases Roll No. 3207863 and 3299006 were allotted by CBSE, Guwahati Region as special cases. The marks obtained by Amrita were : English-64, Maths-91, Physics-66, Chemistry-93, Biology-53, while Surendra Majumdar’s marks were — English-63, Maths-83, Physics-84, Chemistry-82 and Biology-70. Both the candidates were selected for engineering from Nagaland quota. It is learnt that Amrita Anand, daughter of Sri KM Singh, PG Teacher in History in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Mokawah in Bihar was first allowed to appear in Class-XII Science examination from KV, Gangtok (Sikkim) but could not get selected as she could not secure the necessary marks for admission. She was later allowed to reappear in class-XII (Science) from KV, Tuli, Nagaland and secured admission from Nagaland quota.

Similarly, Surendra Majumdar is the son of Sri AS Majumdar, Teacher of KV, Rangpuri, New Delhi. Sri Majumdar is also the general secretary of All India KV Teachers Association. Sri KM Singh, father of Armita Anand is the Deputy General Secretary of the Association. An enquiry will reveal several such cases in the States of Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya. However, the icing on the official letter of the Joint Commissioner is the directive to pay Rupees One Lakh in cash in the name of Commissioner/Joint Commissioner to avail the ‘golden opportunity’. It presumed that lakhs of rupees have been collected by these officials through this racket and only a high level enquiry will reveal where the money has gone. The connivance of teachers of KV schools in the NE States to help the children of these privileged elites to secure high marks in return for transfer/promotions etc. cannot be ruled out. Only a high-level enquiry can bring to light the murky facts behind the racket