Bhadrak: The disability certificates of 110 students who have taken admission to the Plus-III course in Bhadrak Autonomous College on the basis of ‘disability certificates’ will be verified. The district administration has ordered for verification of their disability certificates as it has been alleged that they are fake.
It may be noted that students had staged protests January 10 in front of the district collectorate, alleging that about 200 students with poor marks have taken admission by furnishing forged disability certificates while many meritorious students have been deprived from admission in the college.
Bhadrak Town police registered a case January 12 against five people who had issued death threats to some students who had exposed the illegalities in the admission process through an RTI. IIC Umashankar Nayak said that a case was registered against the five under sections 506 and 34 of IPC on the complaint of death threats.
The matter came to the fore after some students identified as Diptiman Jena, Gyanaranjan Parida, Satyajit Rout and Abinash Ram filed an application in the college under the RTI Act. The complainants have alleged that they were threatened with dire consequences as some ruling party leaders are involved in the scam associated with the admission process.
The controversy came to light January 10 when students under the aegis of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (AVBP), and Naba Nirman Yuva Chhatra Sangathan (NNYCS) and Youth Congress, staged a demonstration outside the district collectorate office protesting the alleged irregularities in admission.
The students submitted a memorandum to the District Collector Trilochan Majhi demanding an investigation into the ‘fake disability certificate’ racket which they claimed had been going on for the last four years. They also demanded the arrest of some ex-students who are involved in the act. The RTI revealed that students with 40 per cent marks have got admission by producing fake disabilities (PWD) certificates.
Principal Umakant Samal said that the college has no role in the admission process. He added that it is done through SAMS by checking documents of the students.
Following a directive from the collector, the college authorities have recommended the verification of disability certificates of 110 students to CDMOs of three districts. These students had taken admission by furnishing disability certificates in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.
It was learnt that the chief district medical officers (CDMO) of Bhadrak, Balasore and Mayurbhanj have been asked to verify the certificates of these 110 students.
