By Our Reporter
Shillong: Throwing light on the allegations that NLHMB did not put in it’s share of the endowment fund of Rs 50 lakh, MLCU Chancellor Dr KM Shyamprasad said the NLHMB and KJPA contributed Rs 50 lakh each to set up the endowment fund of Rs 1 crore.
In addition the NLHMB has contributed Rs 50.11 lakh to the initial expenses of setting up the university, the Chancellor said adding that NLHMB also gave two vehicles and computers. So the total contribution of NLHMB to MLCU is over Rs one crore.
With regards to the KJPA, Shyamprasad said that MLCU has paid it Rs 43.96 lakh as rent and Rs 8.31 lakh as interest towards the loan taken by KJPA to contribute its share of Rs 50 lakh to the endowment fund.
He informed that MLCU also contributed Rs 7 lakh to the setting up of a microbiology lab at Roberts Hospital. Shyamprasad contended that while on the one hand KJPA contributed Rs 50 lakh to the endowment fund but in return has received Rs 59 lakh from MLCU, adding that there has been a net return to KJPA of Rs 9 lakh from MLCU.
In between, both sponsors have made short term loans to the university to tide over cash flow problems, which have been repaid by MLCU. The figures mentioned above are net figures from the complete accounts from the inception of the university.
“It is a fact that KJPA obtained 25 acres of land from Hima Mawphlang for MLCU, but land is still in the name of KJPA and it is not yet transferred to MLCU, as specified in the MLCU Act,” Shyamprasad informed adding that MLCU has also been using Robert’s Hospital for teaching purposes (under the provision of the Shangpung agreement) but MLCU makes payments to doctors, nurses, technologists for teaching.
Clarifying about the legal status of NLHMB vis-à-vis the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (UELCI), Shyamprasad said the MOA of the UELCI a society registered in Tamilnadu in 1981 provides for the setting up of Boards (Article VII). It is in this section the NLHMB was created and registered in 2002 in Chennai as a charitable Public Trust, with the provision that the NLHMB “may have a separate constitution”. The NLHMB was also authorised “to appoint an Executive Committee”.
The author of the trust was the then Executive Secretary of the UELCI. Since 2002, the NLHMB has been operating as a separate trust with church leaders and hospital administrators as members of its Executive Committee.
As a separate registered trust and empowered by the parent body (UELCI) with a separate constitution and executive committee, the NLHMB has independent functions and can carry out its objectives, including the setting up institutions, on its own. “NLHMB was legally empowered to establish MLCU without specific permission from UELCI,” Shyamprasad asserted adding that the UELCI has no legal or administrative relationship with MLCU.
He however said that UELCI is clearly in the know of the setting up of MLCU. In the official e-newsletter of the UELCI, dated Aug 2006, there is an article with pictures of the establishment of MLCU. The same newsletter has a box listing of websites on the last page under the title “Our Websites”. In this list the websites of NLHMB and MLCU are included. This clearly shows that UELCI officially recognises NLHMB and MLCU as its institutions.
The Executive Secretary of UELCI in 2005-06, Rev Chandran Paul Martin was a member of the MLCU Board of Governors and the newsletter has a picture of him in attendance at a Board of Governors meeting of MLCU in Shillong. At the UELCI 27th Triennial Conference held in Chennai on Nov 27-28, 2008, a report on NLHMB and MLCU was presented. The minutes were signed by the present executive secretary of the UELCI.
Shyamprasad further stated that even if the UELCI by subsequent resolution has changed its relationship with NLHMB, this is of no legal consequence unless the UELCI amends its constitution. But even this would have no bearing on NLHMB, as it is a legally constituted authority on its own under the Registrar of Trusts.
The NLHMB formally entered into a relationship with KJPA in a bilateral agreement stating the respective roles and responsibilities of each in a document known as the Shangpung Agreement signed on April 9, 2005.
The MLCU Chancellor said it is disheartening that some vested interests have put together a mishmash of misinformation and half truths and manipulated a campaign of vilification against the University and said that interested and impartial persons should come to the MLCU office and ascertain the facts from legal documents, audited accounts and bank statements that will substantiate all of the above.