LD Engg student accuses college of forcibly collecting donation
‘Donation is absolutely voluntary and even my daughter paid the same amount,’ says the principal
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, July 08, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20100708201007080332558514eb55ba8)
scientist with Plasma Research Institute in Gandhinagar has accused LD College of Engineering of forcibly taking from him a “donation” of Rs 20,000 when he was pursuing master’s programme there, a charge the college vehemently denies.
According to Nareshchandra Gupta who pursued ME in cryogenics in 2005-7, a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department asked him to donate money to Golden Jubilee Trust run by the college.
“The teacher and his colleagues developed an environment of terror and harassment when I resisted payment... I was forced to pay them Rs 20,000,” Gupta alleged, adding that if a student did not pay the amount or delayed the payment, they would either fail him or award very low marks in internal examinations.
The college, though, gave him receipts for the four instalments in which he made the donation. Later Gupta raised query on the donation under Right to Information and the college duly replied to him.
Said Principal MN Patel, the objective of seeking donation from ME students was noble as the money was used to fund students’ R&D projects, making models, and help students and faculty present papers at seminars.
“We don’t charge ME students any fee. The donation is absolutely voluntary and no one is forced into paying it. In fact, my daughter who pursued ME here gave the same donation. We duly issue receipts and present the accounts to the office of the charity commissioner’s office,” Patel said.
Explaining the need for the donation, he said that alumni used to donate money to the institute, but the flow is not adequate. At a meeting called by the then principal in 2002, it was decided to raise a corpus for the fund from students who are sponsored by organisations and industry for ME course at the college.
“We collected Rs 5000 per semester from them for a few years, but stopped the practice in 2009. We have a small corpus and it is serving our purpose,” Patel said. “I have given the student all this information in my reply to his RTI query,” he added.
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, July 08, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20100708201007080332558514eb55ba8)
scientist with Plasma Research Institute in Gandhinagar has accused LD College of Engineering of forcibly taking from him a “donation” of Rs 20,000 when he was pursuing master’s programme there, a charge the college vehemently denies.
According to Nareshchandra Gupta who pursued ME in cryogenics in 2005-7, a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department asked him to donate money to Golden Jubilee Trust run by the college.
“The teacher and his colleagues developed an environment of terror and harassment when I resisted payment... I was forced to pay them Rs 20,000,” Gupta alleged, adding that if a student did not pay the amount or delayed the payment, they would either fail him or award very low marks in internal examinations.
The college, though, gave him receipts for the four instalments in which he made the donation. Later Gupta raised query on the donation under Right to Information and the college duly replied to him.
Said Principal MN Patel, the objective of seeking donation from ME students was noble as the money was used to fund students’ R&D projects, making models, and help students and faculty present papers at seminars.
“We don’t charge ME students any fee. The donation is absolutely voluntary and no one is forced into paying it. In fact, my daughter who pursued ME here gave the same donation. We duly issue receipts and present the accounts to the office of the charity commissioner’s office,” Patel said.
Explaining the need for the donation, he said that alumni used to donate money to the institute, but the flow is not adequate. At a meeting called by the then principal in 2002, it was decided to raise a corpus for the fund from students who are sponsored by organisations and industry for ME course at the college.
“We collected Rs 5000 per semester from them for a few years, but stopped the practice in 2009. We have a small corpus and it is serving our purpose,” Patel said. “I have given the student all this information in my reply to his RTI query,” he added.
