GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee has demanded a CBI probe into the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) which revealed that the Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) of Gauhati University offered 21 unapproved courses for seven years since 2010-11.
APCC has also pledged to facilitate legal assistance to the 73,912 students who had enrolled in these distance learning courses (between 2010-11 and 2016-17) which, according to CAG, have not been approved by the University Grants Commission.
Addressing reporters here on Tuesday, party spokespersons, Imdad Hussain and Sanju Baruah asserted that the APCC would not tolerate the fact that the distance learning centre of the university had jeopardised the careers so many students through enrollment in unapproved courses.
“The CAG report presented before the Assam Assembly clearly stated that the degrees attained by the students who had completed these unapproved courses have been rendered meaningless and therefore they were not even eligible for applying for central government jobs. The stand maintained by the university in this regard is mystifying,” Hussain said.
The APCC further informed that the enrollment fee against the 21 unapproved courses at IDOL amounted to Rs 39.06 crore during the seven-year period. “The CAG report had also mentioned that despite being informed about the state of affairs in the university in August 2018, the Assam government did not show any interest or cooperation, which is baffling,” he said.
