Former Chief Executive of National Cooperative Union of India Bhagwati Prasad has said the Jawahar Lal Cooperative Institute referred to by the auditor in his latest report did get the UGC clearance and it was because of some members of the Governing Council members that the idea of an autonomous Cooperative University could not come to fruition, he said.
“Not a farthing was spent on the venture till I was there and I do not know what happened later on”, Prasad added talking to Indian Cooperative from Lucknow on the phone.
Quoting the audit report he says “NCUI invested Rs 5.80 crore from the corpus fund of NCCT to create a deemed university – Jawaharlal Nehru International Institute, it did not take off as the university grants commission refused permission, sources said.”
A corpus fund was indeed created with Rs 5 crore and the idea was to pool funds from various sources to give this ambitious project a concrete shape. It was during the tenure of the formidable cooperator SS Sisodia when the idea of a University comprehending all the ICMs and RICMs was conceived, Prasad added.
Sisodia – a highly-rated cooperator from Madhya Pradesh wanted to have this University in accordance with the rules and regulations of the UGC. The NCUI Governing Council passed the resolution and the government clearance was sought. Everything went off as planned but some GC members later developed cold feet.
Going down memory lane Bhagwati Prasad recalls that all clearances including that of UGC were received but owing to objection from some of the GC members the matter could not take off, he said.
Indian Cooperative has learnt that three cooperators who objected to the idea were G H Amin, Vishwanathan and Pramod Kumar Singh, though Prasad a hard-boiled bureaucrat would not identify them.
Sources requesting anonymity said these nay sayers wanted to keep ICMs and RICMs under the aegis of NCUI so that they could have their say as affiliation with the UGC would have meant the end of their “Raj”, sources aver.
They wanted VAMNICOM to be included as a part of the proposed University leaving behind ICMs and RICMs. However, neither Vamnicom nor ICMs could become part of the University as the whole idea came to grief.
But what about the corpus fund of Rs 5 crore? Bhagwati Prasad says ” I do not know as I retired soon after.”