JNUSU chief N Sai Balaji accuses varsity of lying

N Sai Balaji, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president belonging to he United Left Panel, has accused the administration of ‘lying’ about the agency which had been tasked to hold the varsity’s online entrance examinations. Taking cognisance of the matter, he informed that he had filed an RTI seeking details of the tender bids for holding the examination for academic year 2019-20. He also said that he had filed the RTI in October and received a reply on December 10.

Reportedly, in the RTI, Balaji had sought to know the name of the agency which was selected for holding the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) online entrance examinations and also asked for the copy of all the bids for the tenders received. The JNUSU further added, president was told that the information was not available and could not be provided at this point of time as the bid evaluation was under process.

He said in a statement, “After the academic council meeting on December 7, the varsity had said that the National Testing Agency had agreed to conduct the computer-based entrance examinations. Either they were lying then or the RTI reply is a lie.”

Balaji had also sought for a copy of advertisement for the tender bids for holding the online entrance examinations. He alleged, “The RTI reply said the tender documents were uploaded on the Central Public Procurement Portal which is in the public domain. But the details have not been uploaded on the website,” he alleged.

Adding on, the JNUSU chief also questioned the varsity over its claims of paucity of funds. He asked, “If the varsity is facing paucity of funds, how is it conducting the online entrance examinations which require a huge amount of funds?”

N Sai Balaji claimed the cost of holding online entrance exams at more than 72 centres was anywhere between Rs 8 crore to Rs 11 crore, whereas the cost of holding the examinations using paper was around Rs 3 crore.

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