NAGPUR, June 18: Some 230 of the 258 colleges attached to Nagpur University have run courses for the entire academic session of 1996-97 without having the university's affiliation.

It sounds quite unbelievable, but the Local Enquiry Committees (LECs) which were to inspect these colleges last year are being formed now.

The students who took classes at these college during 1996-97 have already appeared for the examinations, gone on vacation and their results have also been declared. Barring a handful of old and established colleges which have been granted permanent affiliation, all the others have to undergo inspections every year for continuation of their affiliation.

The regulations require the colleges to produce affiliation certificates to avail of salary and non-salary grants from the State Government and various grants from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other agencies.

In the old Act governing the university, the Executive Council was the final authority for grant of affiliation. The new Act, which came into force some three years back, gives the Academic Council this authority. But that has hardly made a difference.

Regardless of which Act was in force or which authority was responsible, the attitude of those who run the university has been the same. The LECs have, as a matter of practice, been making their inspections each year when more than half the session is already over. That is to say, to grant affiliation for the 1994-95 session, the LEC's would start making their inspections by December 1994 and their reports would begin to come in by March.The reports would be there before the session technically ended. But the exercise becomes quite meaningless by that late stage.

It was a tacit understanding between the college managements and university authorities that the LEC visit was a mere formality conducted only for the sake of a certificate on paper rather than to improve the standards of the colleges.

The state of affairs today is such that LECs are being formed during the vacations following the academic session in question.

Sources in the university say that one of the reasons for the delay in appointing LECs, is internal politics. Teachers feel it quite an honour to be appointed on an LEC.

They get VIP treatment, and besides, the icing on the cake, of course, is the TA/DA re-imbursement.

Moreover, a cursory glance at the lists of LEC members for the 229 colleges to be inspected shows grave mismatches of faculties and streams. Science teachers are inspecting arts or commerce courses, commerce teachers will visit engineering colleges, language teachers will check colleges of home science, the list goes on.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.