Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Aug 6: Even before the report of the fact-finding committee constituted by the East Siang deputy commissioner to probe into alleged anomalies in the Apex Professional University (APU), Pasighat, has come out, a public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Itanagar permanent bench of the Gauhati High Court by an Adi Students’ Union member, Obang Paro, against the university, urging the court to direct the institute not to take fresh admission.
The PIL alleges that “the university lacks basic infrastructures, teaching (and) other facilities in utter violation of the provisions of Apex Professional University Act 2012 and several others.”
It alleges that the APU is ill-equipped and running without basic infrastructural, teaching and other facilities, and accuses the private university of being run “with purely profit motives which led to the, commercialization of higher education without imparting quality education.”
The petitioner claims that information obtained through the RTI Act revealed that the total number of students enrolled in the APU was 600, and that on the day of its first convocation, 15 July, 2017, more than 190 students obtained degrees.
“Although no records could be traced out, it is believed that the university has admitted hundreds of students from outside Arunachal Pradesh and issued thousands of degrees outside the state till date in illegal manner,” the petition says.
It also terms “illegal” the lease agreement that the university signed with the urban development department, for a period of 30 years, for the shopping complex in Pasighat from where the APU is operating.
It alleges that the department did not use the shopping complex for the purpose it was constructed for, and “in the most illegal manner” leased out the land and building to the university.
Meanwhile, although the fact-finding committee was expected to submit its report within seven days, it is yet to draft its final report.
When contacted, the East Siang DC refused to offer any comment.
