Former PTU V-C Arora in VB net over financial bunglings
JALANDHAR: Former vice-chancellor of the Inder Kumar Gujral Punjab Technical University (PTU) Rajneesh Arora was arrested on Monday for irregularities in appointments and financial bungling during the SAD-BJP government’s tenure.
“We arrested Arora from his house in Amritsar this morning in an embezzlement case during his tenure as PTU V-C,” vigilance bureau SSP DS Dhillon said. Arora was produced in the court of additional sessions judge Manpreet Kaur who granted police his remand till January 12.
Nine other employees, including Geetika Sood, daughter of Tikshan Sood, former minister and political adviser of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, and Dr Nachatter Singh, PTU adviser, have been booked under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) by the vigilance bureau as they were given jobs by Arora without following proper procedure.
Kahan Singh Pannu, officiating as the PTU vice-chancellor, had ordered an inquiry in May after getting complaints against Arora. Vigilance registered a case following an inquiry report submitted by former IAS officer SS Dhillon in July, indicting Arora for financial irregularities and bypassing norms to appoint consultants.
Sources said the probe looked into complaints that the Delhi campus of PTU incurred an expenditure of Rs 1.65 crore and candidates with links to the RSS. were made faculty members.
The vigilance probe found he madeabout Rs25-crore payment to private company M/s NETiit as counselling fee and Rs 9.26-crore payment to F and C employees during Arora’s ten- ure as V-C.
Technical education minister Charanjit Singh Channi had in September written to chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, recommending the registration of an FIR against him on the basis of the report. Arora recruited six coordinators and facilitators without giving any advertisement in the newspaper and paid Rs 2.73 crore (2012-13) and Rs 6.53 crore (2013-14) to them. Later, the university gave advertisement for 12 F&C posts but appointed the employees without considering the recommendation of committee set up to select the candidates, who were fulfilling the requisite conditions.
“The eligible candidates were ignored,” revealed the FIR. Arora appointed his friend Parveen Kumar consulted of NETiit against norms.
Then chief secretary had told the high court that appointment of consultant will be cancelled immediately but V-C didn’t quash the post.
Geetika Sood (legal officer) had not attached any document with her application which could prove her experience having worked in office or in university as a legal practitioner. But she was hired without having the requisite experience certificate.
CHANDIGARH: Rajnish Arora was widely seen as a candidate pushed forward by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangah (RSS) when he was appointed vicechancellor of Punjab Technical University( PTU), Kapurthala, in December 2008 during the tenure of the SAD-B JP alliance. On Monday, as he was arrested in a corruption case by the state vigilance bureau 10 months after the Congress returned to power, the action is being seen as an outcome of his workings while on the post for two tensures of three years each.
An electrical engineering graduate and also a PhD-holder from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, the Amritsar native first worked for the Sangh in Delhi. And then his wife and he worked for an associate body of the RSS in Naxal-hit areas of J hark hand. Ar ora, whose father was also associated with the RS S, has a son and a daughter.
He was working at Guru Nanak Dev University( G ND U) in Amritsar when he was picked for the PT U top post, which he held til January 2015. PTU is a state university with 288 affiliated colleges providing engineering, management and pharmacy education. It has nearly 1,400 learning centres all over India, with a student strength of over 3 lakh and an annual budget of over ₹300 cr ore.
Arora operated authoritative ly and was accused of making recruitments from families of the saffron ideology. Also among the controversial appointments was that of his former class mate Pr aveen Kumar, whom he made his adviser and who is now among those booked in the case. Prave en‘s company was paid 8% of the admission fee received by regional centres and other learning centres.
Arora served as a member of the IIT-Delhi board of governors; member of the Punjab State Council of Science and Technology, and member of the board of governors for National Institute of Technical Teacher Training, Chandigarh.
PTU spread its wings in his tenure and a number of colleges are now running as private universities. It was because of his strong links with powerful businessmen in the education sector that he continued to enjoy complete say, and the BJP kept a strong grip over private colleges, observers said, on the condition of anonymity.
He also started some courses in ‘V edi cm a thematics’ and‘ human values ’, which, though appreciated by some, were seen as a bid to “saffronise” the university. Many praise him for improving the examination system, making PTU a self-sustained institution, starting a centralised online admission portal, and working towards ending the ad-hoc system of appointments.
There are now voices on the campus in Kapurthala that the case against Arora is a result of his enmity with the present dispensation. Ar ora, in his tenure as V-C, had dismissed dean NP Singh on charges of irregularities, but Singh was reinstated after Arora’s tenure ended.
Ar or aisle arnt to have a “good reputation” among powerful bureaucrats at the helm of affairs in the present government, and his arrest has astonished the RS SB JP cad re, who believed the government led by Captain Amarinder Singh would not create troubles for RS S-backed men.