295 Engineering colleges under Anna University in Tamil Nadu were issued show cause notices, seeking explanation regarding the duplication of faculty members, on Saturday, July 27. Earlier, on July 23, Chennai-based anti-graft NGO Arappor Iyakkam, had released documents that pointed to 224 Engineering colleges under Anna University, having resorted to fraudulent means to acquire affiliation. All those colleges had reportedly presented the same persons as full-time faculty members during inspections in 2023-24.
Right to Information (RTI) petitions and documents uploaded by Anna University on their website accessed by the NGO show that 353 teachers were presented as full-time faculty in more than one engineering college. Among the 353, two professors of Engineering were presented as full-time faculty in as many as 11 different Engineering colleges and three professors in 10 different colleges among others.
Read: Same prof in 11 colleges: NGO exposes alleged fraud in Anna University affiliation
The show cause notice issued to the colleges have sought the self-attested copies of Aadhaar and PAN details of each of the colleges’ professors who have been enlisted as full-time faculty. The notice also has asked the colleges to explain why action should not be initiated against them if they fail to produce the same in a week’s time. “The university is at liberty to take suo-motu action to disaffiliate all the programmes conducted in your college for the academic year 2024-25,” the notice said. The university’s Vice-Chancellor R Velraj has also said that action would be taken on the affiliated engineering colleges on Sunday, July 28.
It may however be noted that the Inspecting Committee and the Standing Committee of Anna University who inspected colleges for offering affiliation, are suspected of having colluded in this alleged fraud. The speculation arose since the inspecting officers ‘verified’ the same person twice on the same date, in two different colleges located several hundred kilometres away.