Govt to introduce bill to rein in fake educational institutes

Fake educational Institutes better be careful when placing advertisements for ‘lucrative’ professional courses. The state government will introduce a bill in the winter session of the state legislature to curb the menace of bogus educational institutions, which are taking students for a ride.

The Maharashtra Unauthorized Institutes & Courses in Technical and Vocational Education Bill will be tabled in the upcoming winter session of the state legislature.

“This bill is the need of the hour as plenty of bogus institutions have mushroomed in the state over the years. Students are falling prey to bogus institutes, which guarantee placements. They are vociferously advertising false claims. The bill will ensure that such institutes pull down their shutters,” said minister for higher and technical education Rajesh Tope at an event in Aurangabad.

Tope said bogus institutes do not have the infrastructure, qualified faculty to train students and inadequate hostel facilities. They also give false job promises, said Tope. The new bill includes provisions for such bogus institutes to refund the fees collected from students. There is also a provision to levy a fine, which ranges from Rs1 lakh to Rs5 lakh. Offenders may face one-year imprisonment. The bill has also suggested measures against advertisements by fake training institutes in the state.

This initiative by the state higher and technical education department comes in the light of Bombay high court directives that asked the state government to put in place measures that will stop the menace of increasing number of fake institutes in the state. Students have welcomed this move and are looking forward to strict vigilance by the state in weeding out such bogus institutes.

Ayushi Badola, who has just completed her graduation, said: “There are so many institutes putting out ads in newspapers claiming to offer world class facilities. But when I checked on some of the institutes I found that most of them do not even have the necessary recognitions from the state.’’

Another student Naman Bhat, who is pursuing an MBA, said: “Students get duped by such institutes on a regular basis. There needs to be a mechanism in place that will filter out such fake institutes so that we do not have to worry about the authenticity of an institute while applying there.”