SHILLONG, MAY 15: It is not only the students of the CMJ University who had been duped by the university owned and managed by its chancellor Chandra Mohan Jha, who was once a small time contractor, but even the Meghalaya government had been led up the garden path as it had sponsored engineering students studying in the now infamous private university.
None other than the Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma revealed that the state government had sponsored engineering students who had opted to study in the Shillong Engineering College (SEC) which is under the umbrella of the CMJ University.
The chancellor CM Jha is now absconding as the state CID is looking to arrest him after Meghalaya governor RS Mooshahary- who is the Visitor of the University- had filed an FIR against the university for duping students as the degrees given by it are not recognized.
Sangma on Wednesday, “The state government had sponsored students who had opted to study in SEC.” Justifying the government’s decision to sponsor engineering students studying in the SEC he said as the state government is not position to provide the required education to the youth so the government had to call private parties to open university in the state.
Jha, who had come to Shillong in the early 70s and worked as a petty government contractor and supplier, put up the proposal for setting up the CMJ University in 2005 when the government invited private investors in the field of education to meet the modern demand for courses like BBA, MBA and others. Sangma said at that time, the CMJ University was not given the permission but it got the required go ahead from the government later.
From a mere government contractor Jha, who gradually rubbed shoulders with the state’s high and mighty, suddenly turned into an educational entrepreneur and set up the North East India Trust for Education and Development (NEITED). His influence in the political circle can be gauged by the fact that he convinced former chief minister DD Lapang to become the chairman of NEITED. Lapang, of course, resigned when the trust landed in the controversy.
Sangma revealed that Jha was given the permission to set-up the CMJ University by the Meghalaya government because the government thought it was doing injustice to a person who has been in the state for such a long time. Incidentally, Jha had come to Shillong from Bihar in the early 70s.
Awoken by the CMJ University’s scandal, Sangma informed that the government has constituted a monitoring body to monitor the private institutes in the state. He said, “The Mahatma Gandhi University is the other university under the government scanner.”
As Chandra Mohan Jha educational venture spreads across India and students from various parts of the country who have been taken for a ride by this dubious university have filed FIRs, Sangma said if needed the Meghalaya government may approach the CBI. He, however, said that as of now the investigation conducted by the state CID is commendable.
The CMJ University present scandal is the third one in a row as CM Jha had been arrested in 2011 after the HUDCO filed a case but was later released on bail. In another case the CBI had filed a charge-sheet against Jha – who was the Secretary of NEITED- because he had allegedly misutilized the NEC fund for implementation of a scheme called “Integrated e-education and Tele health programme for 10 Schools in Meghalaya.”
The charge against Jha was that he had allegedly furnished false utilization certificates to the NEC claiming the funds have been utilized.
What perplexed the people in Meghalaya is the smoothness with which Jha negotiated the route from a small time government contractor to a social entrepreneur with whole range of education institutes under his belt. The university gave Ph.D degrees in as many as seventy-nine different subjects, which include agriculture, horticulture, engineering, forestry, fashion technology, insurance management, microbiology, nursing, peace studies, pollution control, physics, nanotechnology, police administration, Sanskrit, spots science, Urdu and yoga.
And interestingly for one such PhD on offer the student(s) who enrolls into the CMJ University need not come all the way to Shillong as a dental clinic in Panchkula organize such a degree for this particular university. It is believed that Chandra Mohan Jha has agents all over UP and Bihar which facilitate PhDs and other degrees for students from his university.
CM Jha’s empire of educational institutes
MEGHALAYA: He has (i) Shillong Engineering & Management College, (ii) Meghalaya Institute of Science and Technology, (iii) Shillong Institute of Teachers Education, (iv) One centre of NIMTT at Shillong, one at Jorabat, (v) CMJ University, (vi) CMJ Foundation, (vii) North Eastern India Trust for Education and Development, and (viii) Eastern Petrochemicals Pvt Ltd which is sole private LPG bottling plant in NE India.
NAGALAND: He has a unit of Eastern Petrochemicals Pvt Ltd.
WEST BENGAL: He has (i) JD Healthcare Pvt Ltd at Siliguri which manufactures several cosmetic products, (ii) NIMTT Centres at Kolkata, (iii) George Telegraph Training Institute at Kolkata, (iv) TAFE-NSW International Study Centre at Kolkata.
SIKKIM: He has JD Healthcare Pvt Ltd unit.
BIHAR: He has (i) CMJ Institute of Technology at Rajgirh.(ii) George Telegraph Training Institute at Patna, (ii) NIMTT Centre at Patna.- By Our Reporter
Promoters of Apex Professional University in Arunachal Pradesh are the same bunch of guys who collaborated with CMJ University for running Industry Integrated Courses. Study Centres and students must check their credentials before dealing with them.