Laxminarayan Institute of Technology head remains unpunished for irregularities - The Times of India

Laxminarayan Institute of Technology head remains unpunished for irregularities - The Times of India: "NAGPUR: Though winds of change are flowing in Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT) with a new director at the helm of affairs, the old scars are still haunting the age-old institution.

The Nagpur University is yet to take action against former director Suresh Gholse because of whom LIT was on the verge of getting derecognized. The NU had to pay a fine of Rs2 lakh to bail it out.

Coincidentally, acting director and NU registrar Mahesh Yenkie, who paid the fine in AICTE's Delhi office, and vice chancellor Vilas Sapkal are alumni of LIT.

Citing confidential documents, TOI on March 6 last year had first brought to the fore how LIT's batch of 2010-11 was not approved by AICTE on account of various loopholes including poor maintenance and failure to fill up large scale vacancies."

Even the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court had passed strictures on the NU administration for lack of maintenance and failure to fill up vacancies which are not filled up till date. AICTE's earlier approval was only for 2008-10 session and, thereafter, LIT should have applied for the extension. But mismanagement on the part of Gholse and NU, LIT failed to send the renewal proposal. In fact, the visiting AICTE team had blasted NU officials for the same.

Seven months after the TOI expose, Sapkal constituted a committee under Board of College and University Development (BCUD) director Arvind Chaudhary and head of Gandhian thought department KS Bharti to probe the mismanagement and fix the responsibility.

Shockingly, the panel had only met once in the last one year and failed to take any decision. TOI's enquiries with Chaudhary were stonewalled. "I had called for all records and a decision will be taken soon," has been his only reply.

As an LIT director, Yenkie refused to state anything.

When Gholse took over director's charge from Rajiv Mankar, the infighting touched a new nadir. He invited criticism by sending a New Year greeting to everyone in the institute saying that LIT was undergoing a difficult period for want of teaching faculty. He reiterated that research was restricted due to acute chemical shortage. Gholse had even stopped all the research work for ME or PhD along with BTech and MTech courses.

Gholse was subsequently removed from the post in May last year but continues to be a lecturer.