Nursing students victims of forgery & scams in Madhya Pradesh

In 2020, Vikram Panwar (24) made the decision to enrol in B.Sc Nursing for the academic year 2020-21. He aimed to financially support his family after completing the rigorous four-year program. Unfortunately, despite even after three years, he is still in his first year. When asked about his failure to complete the semester examinations, he sarcastically responded,

“When the exams have not been held for 3 years, then what failed and what passed.”

The future of countless paramedical students, such as Panwar, in Madhya Pradesh is uncertain as their studies hang in the balance. Whether in government or private institutions, annual examinations have not been conducted for the past three years in any college affiliated with Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University. Consequently, students enrolled in these colleges have remained first-year students for the past three years.

MP Nursing college scam: Know what is the matter?

Talking to Ground Report Dr Pushparaj Singh, Registrar, MP Medical Science University, says,

"The examination was scheduled to take place this year. But, unfortunately, in February, as a result of a High Court case, there is a ban on holding the examinations."

Singh further says that the examination for the session 2020-21 was to be held on 07 December 2021. For the examination, the university issued a notice on 22 October. But, it got delayed due to technical reasons. After this, the university took out the notice of the examination several times but the examination did not take place.

The case Dr Singh is talking about is related to the nursing scam. This year, while hearing Dilip Kumar Sharma vs State of Madhya Pradesh, the Gwalior Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the nursing colleges (MP Nursing college scam) in April. While investigating this, on July 27, the CBI presented the investigation report of 140 colleges before the court. During this investigation, the CBI also found 4 out of 8 government nursing colleges (MP Nursing College scams) to be ineligible before the standards of recognition.

MP Nursing College scam: Admission taken without recognition

Ravi Parmar, head of the medical wing of the NSUI, the student wing of the Congress, says,

“In the session of 2020-21, un-recognized colleges also took admission of students. The university and the council recognized half of the colleges and delayed the recognition of the rest. This is the reason why the examination of the students of this session could not be done till the year 2022.”

Parmar claims that corruption is involved in the process. He asserted that the delay in granting recognition to colleges was intentionally designed to extort money from them in exchange for affiliation with the university.

Talking about these allegations, Dr Pushparaj Singh says,

“It is the work of the council to give recognition. There is affiliation from the university. If the council gives recognition then we cannot refuse to give affiliation.”

Different fees for the same course

Ishwar Panwar (21), a resident of Rajgarh, is studying B.Sc Nursing in SAM College for the last 3 years. He too has neither had any examination till now. Hence, he is still in the first year. He says that while giving admission, he was told on behalf of the college students that the college has all kinds of facilities. But later everything turned out to be a lie.

Ishwar's fee is the highest in the whole class. He pays 80 thousand rupees for one year for his course. While other children studying in their class pay different fees. “My fee is 80 thousand rupees while the fee of my own maternal uncle's son is 65 thousand rupees,” Panwar says. He explains that admission is given in colleges through touts who call themselves consultants, in which each student has different fees due to commission.

Similarly, Aniket Patel (22), who is studying at NRI College, also pays Rs 75,000 as fees for one year. He also repeats the same thing. “Each student has different fees due to touts. In my college, some students pay less fees than me and some more than me."

In this matter, when we talked to Dr Yogesh Sharma, the officer of the Nursing Council, he said that the council has not received any complaint in this matter so far. On receiving the complaint, he said to take action.

Results of CBI investigation

The investigating agency examined a total of 140 colleges before submitting the report to the court. Additionally, they requested additional time to investigate 169 other colleges. During the investigation, the CBI discovered that out of the 62 colleges operating for less than 5 years, only 27 (43.54%) were eligible for recognition. Moreover, out of the 40 nursing colleges running for over 10 years, only 27 were deemed eligible by the investigating agency.

This is not the only case in the court raising questions regarding the recognition of nursing colleges. Additionally, in the Jabalpur bench of the High Court, Vishal Baghel, president of the Lost Student Association, had also filed a case against 55 nursing colleges running in the tribal districts of the state. While talking to us, Baghel said that both these cases will now be jointly fought in the Principal Bench of the High Court i.e. Jabalpur. The next hearing of the case will be on August 9th.

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