Now a drama by college owner, who threatened to self immolate himself

ETT colleges again in news

Now a drama by college owner, who threatened to self immolate himself

Yash Khajuria

Jammu, Aug 29: While the ‘education mafia’ in Jammu and Kashmir has already made education an avenue of  earning huge money, but now it has come to the level of ‘Drama’.

A recent incident is testimony to this fact, were a owner of Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) institute first threatened the staff in J&K State Board of School Education (JKBOSE) and later threatened to self immolate himself, for not giving permission to admit students in management quota.  

Sources said that the owner of Nalanda ETT college identified as Rakesh Sharma approached V R Sharma, Joint Secretary, Examination (JKBOSE) seeking permission for admissions of ETT aspirants under Management Quota for the session 2009-11 which was denied to him as his institute was not given No Objection Certificate (NoC) by the authorities.

Eyewitnesses alleged that the person again visited BOSE office with NoC to seek permission for starting admission in the course, which was again denied as date of admission has passed.

Sources said that there was complete chaos in the board premises after the ETT owner threatened to self immolate himself which forced the authorities to call police. Later police was deployed in the office premises just as a preventive measure because and efforts were made to pacify the person identified as Rakesh Sharma.

Sources further claimed that Rakesh Sharma had also apprised the BOSE that despite completing all the necessary formalities he had not found his college on the official website.  Sources said after finding things went out of control, Rakesh threatened the BOSE authorities to self immolate him. As a preventive measure, the BOSE then called for police deployment in the office premises of JKBOSE to prevent any untoward incident.

ETT colleges are always in news for bad reasons. A year ago in an astonishing find, 51 Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) institutes functioning in Jammu region were proclaimed as untraceable by a survey conducted by the Board

Sources said that most of these institutions have given addresses which do not exist or the buildings mentioned were found locked, sending alarm bells ringing among the officials.

Though many raise questions about the failure of board till now to detect the ‘fraud’ going on in the name of ETT education in the state, but officials said that running of these ‘untraceable’ institutions was not possible without the support of the senior officials in the BOSE, whose working is already under scanner.