Centre should clarify if allegations against Pandit right or wrong: Maharashtra minister

The entrance gate of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Photo/iStock

Maharashtra minister Uday Samant on Wednesday said the central vigilance committee, which cleared the name of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit for her appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of the JNU, should clarify whether the allegations against her in the "PIOs scam" were right or wrong.

Ms Pandit was indicted by a committee in the alleged irregularities in the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) admissions between 2002 and 2007 at Savitribai Phule Pune University's (SPPU, then University of Pune) International Students Centre, of which she was the director. Before being appointed as the VC of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), she was a professor of political science at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the SPPU."As per the information given to me by the university officials, a confidential report about Pandit was sent to the vigilance committee.

The report sent to the committee was about the complaints received against her.

After the varsity received the complaints (in 2008), a committee was formed and the complaints were scrutinised and her five increments were withheld," Mr Samant, state Higher and Technical Education Minister, said.

The university sent all the documents related to Dr Pandit to the vigilance committee, he said, adding that even after receiving the report of this allegation against her and withholding of the increments as punishment, if the central vigilance committee has cleared her name, then question remains - what action will be taken against those who took action against her in 2011.

"I do not say that the action taken against her in 2011 was wrong or right as I do not have any right to speak about the same. But inquiry should be carried out to find out whether somebody has done it to defame her and that inquiry should be done by the central government. If they do not want to do that inquiry, at least the vigilance committee should inform whether the allegations made against her were wrong or right," he said.

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