Govt 'supports' blacklisted private Vet college ?
28 October 1999 22:35 IST In 1984, it was the engineering college on capitation, mooted by former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's nephew Voditala Rajeshwar Rao, which the militant students movement forced the government to scrap.
After 15 years, it is now a veterinary college on capitation, owned by a private party from Bangalore, which is being allowed in principle, without even checking its credentials. Its political godfather is not yet known.
The ball had started rolling during the regime of Dr Wilfred de Souza, whose coalition government was also supported by the BJP. The No Objection Certificate was however granted during the President's Rule.
The Congress government of Luizinho Faleiro has not only reviewed it positively, but the Bharatiya Veterinary College has also been given possession of a three-storeyed building of the animal husbandry department at Kurti in Ponda, on two-year contract and monthly rent of Rs 25,000, to run the college.
The Goa University has already granted temporary affiliation to the BVC, subject to approval from the Veterinary Council of India and creation of total infrastructure like the class rooms, laboratory, hospital, staff, besides a bank guarantee of Rs 50 lakh.
Interestingly, none of the concerned authorities have however bothered to find out history of the college, which made 180 students from all over the country to suffer in Bangalore 10 years ago. The Karnataka government as well as the Karnataka University have already blacklisted the institution.
"The BVC owners deny it", says a high official in the animal husbandry department, admitting indirectly that the state government is not in dark over the infamous background of the institution. But they have no plans to cross-check it from their counterpart in Karnataka.
As per the information gathered in this regard, the whole matter even reached the court in 1985. After hearing the case for two years, the court ordered the BVC authorities to pay compensation to the government while also making them refund the money to the students. But it could not compensate for the whole career the 180 students from different parts of the country lost in the bargain.
The BVC even went to the extent of defying provisions of the University of Agricultural Sciences Act and claimed its affiliation to the New Port University, California in USA. But they could not furnish necessary information to the satisfaction of the Karnataka Veterinary Council till last minute.
The matter was then even discussed in the Karnataka state Assembly in September 1983. B L Gowda, the then agriculture minister, had clearly told the House that the BVC's application for seeking affiliation was rejected to run the five-year degree course.
The story does not end here. The same BVC authorities once again approached the Karnataka authorities last year for the NOC, posing it is a joint venture with the countries like Israel, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe etc and recognising the BVM degree of Government of Zambia.
It was again rejected by the Karnataka University as well as the Karnataka government, on the grounds that private veterinary colleges are banned in the state and no college can be allowed having affiliation with any university outside the state, as per the provisions of the act.
The BVC has now chosen Goa as its next destination, beginning the whole process with a bundle of lies. Occupying little space at Shantakar Building on the Porvorim road (near Sai Service Centre) and putting up a name board, the institute started releasing advertisements at national level, in the Indian Veterinary Journal.
The first one in April was inviting applications for the teaching faculty, followed by many more till July, inviting enquiries and selling prospectus at the rate of Rs 520. The advertisements claimed that "this college is approved and recognised by Government of Goa to start its BVSc & AH degrees course of five years from 1999.
It even went to the extent of claiming that the Goa University has 'recommended' it on 29 January while the Goa government has even provided a Livestock Complex in Ponda to run the college for one year, when the building actually is still housing the government dispensary and statistical section.
The four-month consistent exercise was then followed by a small advertisement in August, issuing a clarification 'to avoid any misunderstanding', making three vital points :
1. The Goa government has issued NOC for Goa University for processing the application of affiliation of the BVC,
2. The application for granting affiliation from 1999-2000 was still under consideration of Goa University, and
3. The purpose of earlier advertisements was only to assess the demand for such a course and not an invitation to seek admission.
"They cannot start classes unless we grant them permanent affiliation, which would be granted only after fulfilling our conditions like infrastructure etc as well as approval from the Veterinary Council of India", says D V Borkar, registrar of Goa University.
With a request not to quote him, the animal husbandry high official says that the VCI would not approve it unless they see the infrastructure of the college. Putting cart before the horse, the state authorities have thus preferred to hand over the public property to them, instead of checking the BVC's background.
The argument being used is simple. Goa does not have its own veterinary college and the Konkan Krishi Vidyapith in Dapoli charges Rs 40,000 per Goan student, out of which half of the amount is borne by the government. The BVC, on the other hand, is reserving 10 seats for Goan students, but by charging capitation fees.
I used to be a student of BVC bangalore....
The promoter of the college and his brother are hard core fraudsters [Naidus].
Goa should not allow these guys to enter their state and make more people go through the trauma that my fellow students and I went through.