Navi Mumbai: NMMC engineers with bogus B.Tech degrees from Rajasthan face action; full probe demanded

NAVI MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has finally acted on a pending case of how certain civic employees from the engineering department had acquired dubious BTech degrees through distance education from an equally dubious Rajasthan based college. Municipal commissioner Rajesh Narvekar has now formally written to the civic administration to take note and set aside the BTech degrees of three civic engineers so that it does not help them in getting any future benefits like promotions, increments etc.However, RTI activist Anarjit Chauhan, who had originally complained to the civic body about the bogus engineering degrees racket, informed that he had actually given the NMMC a list of 15 names of civic employees who had acquired these invalid BTech degrees from the same Rajasthan based institute; hence, he is surprised why only three municipal engineers have been marked out in connection with the educational degree scam, while the names of 12 other engineers have mysteriously disappeared from the official files.``It is shocking, to say the least, that how did the names of 12 civic engineers with bogus BTech degrees disappear from the NMMC files, while action has only been taken on three other engineers who had got the same educational qualification through distance learning from an unregistered college in Rajasthan. I had complained about the engineering degrees scam with valid documents of 15 engineers to NMMC in 2016. Sadly, today, only three names of civic employees are mentioned in the official files. An indepth probe is required into this, besides an FIR to be lodged,'' said Chauhan.He further added that the 15 engineers had applied for the distance learning course for BTech (civil) degree to an Udaipur based college which is not even recognized by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). ``The intention of these 15 civic employees was to easily acquire the BTech degrees so that it helps their future career prospects with the help of this higher educational certificate. But, such a degree or certificate has no value in engineering field, since the candidates did not study the course as it should be learned. Hence, this is criminal. Also, NMMC should find out who all helped in deleting the names of 12 civic engineers from the office files, after I had complained to the civic body,'' Chauhan said.When TOI contacted commissioner Narvekar, he said: ``I will ask the officials concerned to inquire on the issue of 12 more civic engineers having the BTech degree from Rajasthan. At present, I have only asked the civic admin to not consider the BTech degrees of three employees for any job related progress. Also, while these degrees are unrecognized, they are not illegal per se.''Meanwhile, Chauhan further commented: ``Tomorrow, I can also contact any random, unregistered college in India and become an `engineer' through distance learning. I feel such institutes exist solely to help government employees and others in private sector to `update' their resumes and thereby earn promotions.''