IIT Guwahati whistleblower prof and others start a portal to 'expose' irregularities in India's premier colleges

A few academics and students have kickstarted a website www.transparencyhighereducation.org to seek more accountability and expose discrepancies and scams happening in the higher education sector in the country. The brand new website currently talks of six case studies from campuses across India.

"The issues and irregularities that happen in the country's premier institutes are mostly hushed down and the public doesn't get to know about them," says Dr Brijesh Rai, who is among the few who started the initiative. "We try to let the public know about these issues through this website," says Rai. A former IIT Guwahati professor, Rai was asked to go on compulsory retirement from the institute a year back, after he filed complaints and raised allegations of corruption against the institute's administration. He had filed over 300 RTIs to prove the same. This had stirred up a storm among the student community at that time.

Interestingly, the second case study posted on the website is about Rai himself, which goes by the title 'Victimisation of a whistleblower at IIT Guwahati'. Another case study talks about an alleged irregularity in an appointment in the Institute Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Gujarat.

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Rai says that the team aims to put up at least one case study a week. "Transparency is the key to avoiding discrepancies in this sector," says Rai. "At the same time, we are also careful to make sure that we do not attract legal trouble here. The aim is to only ensure that everything happens in a just manner in our academic institutes," he adds.
 
Through a Facebook post, he has now invited more students and teachers to join hands with him to 'work' for the same. "I welcome each and everyone who wants to work for the transparency, accountability and good governance in higher education in India to work with us. We do need more and more people to contribute and volunteer. If you want to contribute in the way best suited for you, we may have some volunteering work for you," he wrote.