1 week Ago By Ardhra Nair
Pune: Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) will inquire into the allegations of financial irregularities made by chancellor Sanjeev Sanyal against its parent body, Servants of India Society (SIS). A teary-eyed Damodar Sahoo, president of SIS, who arrived at the institute on Monday, said he was shocked by the turn of events and the society's members will meet on Tuesday to look into the issues of financial irregularities plaguing both institutions. He said he did not know anything about these financial dealings.
GIPE's officiating deputy registrar Vishal Gaikwad, who lodged a complaint of cheating and misappropriation of Rs 1.42 crore funds against SIS secretary Milind Deshmukh, said the institute has taken cognisance of the issues regarding financial matters. He added, "These concerns were raised by the experts in our finance committee and were formally communicated to the chancellor.
Based on the internal findings and the recommendations of the finance committee, the institute will take appropriate action. If necessary, we will pursue legal remedies," he said. As per UGC guidelines, educational institutions receiving govt grants cannot transfer funds to a third party.
GIPE receives funds from UGC, the central and state govts, and tuition fees from students and other sources. When asked if there will be action against Deshmukh, Sahoo said, "Once we go through everything, all the documents etc., we will take further decisions.
Any decision needs to be taken by the executive body and then passed in the general body," he added. While Sanyal declined to comment on what action would be taken regarding the allegations he has raised, students and alumni sent him a letter expressing their support for him. Three-member panel's inquiry report in a month A fresh controversy erupted when SIS trustees raised issues related to alleged irregularities in the recruitment of contractual staff at GIPE and sought an investigation into the matter by the chancellor, who in turn requested vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Santishree Pandit to constitute a committee.
Pandit told TOI that she received Sanyal's letter on March 31 and responded on April 1, accepting the responsibility. "Now, I need to co-opt two more members to form a three-member committee. The two members will be locals from Maharashtra so that meetings and coordination become easier," she said.
She added that the three-member committee will examine whether all the rules and regulations laid down by UGC to recruit contractual positions in a deemed-to-be university were followed. "Chancellor Sanyal approached me probably because I am from Pune and familiar with the institute. There has been no official complaint yet from anyone regarding irregularities in recruitment," Pandit added.
She appealed to others with evidence or grievances to submit their concerns. She said there is a defined process to initiate an investigative committee, and she was waiting for GIPE to begin the process for its formal constitution. "We will review all relevant documents and consider any evidence submitted by faculty or others.
Since we aim to follow due process and not rush, I estimate the investigation and the preparation of the report will take about a month," Pandit said. Business school explains presence on campus In his tweets, Sanyal had raised concerns about Western Business School (WBS) being allowed to operate on GIPE's campus, use photographs of GIPE buildings in its promotion, and issues related to the control exercised by SIS over the land on which GIPE stands. Chanakya Kumar Jha, member of the board of directors for WBS, said, "The space was leased by SIS to a third party who sub-leased it to us for 11 months in good faith.
This is our counselling centre. We came here two months ago and will be here for a few more months until this year's admission counselling ends." On the use of photographs of GIPE campus on the WBS website, Jha said that a third party was hired to build the site, and they unknowingly used the images.
"We have removed them and are in the process of changing the listed address from GIPE to Sudumbre where our educational campus is located. We only provide counselling services on GIPE's campus," he added..
