A day after technical education minister Uday Samant was embroiled in a row over his educational qualification, another Maharashtra minister, Prajakt Tanpure, is being accused of furnishing false information pertaining to his degree.
On Tuesday, Right to Information (RTI) activist Abhishek Haridas demanded the resignations of both ministers, alleging that they had submitted misleading affidavits about their degrees to the Election Commission. Haridas said he will approach the court over the issue.
“In a similar case, a bench of justice AR Dave and justice L Nageshwashar Rao had quashed the election of a Congress legislator from Manipur, Mairembam Prithviraj, for falsely declaring that he had an MBA degree in his nomination paper. The court held that the right to vote would be meaningless unless citizens were well informed about education qualification [of their representatives].”
Haridas alleged that Tanpure, the urban development minister, had falsely claimed in form 26 of the election affidavit that he had cleared his higher school certificate (HSC) exam from Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). However, the university does not award HSC certificates to any student.
Speaking to HT, Tanpure said, “I do not wish to comment on the issue without going through all the documents. I had revealed all the details regarding my educational qualifications in the election affidavit.”
{{/usCountry}}Speaking to HT, Tanpure said, “I do not wish to comment on the issue without going through all the documents. I had revealed all the details regarding my educational qualifications in the election affidavit.”
{{/usCountry}}Haridas also alleged that Samant holds a degree from an unrecognised university. In his affidavit, Samant had mentioned that he holds an engineering degree from Dnyaneshwar University in Pune. However, Haridas said that according to the university’s website, it is neither affiliated to the Universal Grants Commission (UGC) nor to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Ironically, Samant’s predecessor Vinod Tawde had also faced similar allegations as he too had obtained his degree from the same institution.
Samant refuted the allegations. “I did not take any benefits from that particular certificate [from the university] nor did I apply anywhere for a job [using it]. I admitted myself to Dnyaneshwar University to gain knowledge. So how can anybody say I am using forged degree certificate?”he said.