New Delhi: A letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by an alumnus of the Agra University – seeking his intervention to get the formal certificate of his Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree from the university in Uttar Pradesh – has brought to light that the varsity is yet to issue formal degrees to over 50,000 students, even years after passing their examinations.
Delhi-based Amit Kumar, 40, graduated from the university when he was 23-years-old.
Ashok Mittal, vice chancellor of the university, told the Times of India in a report, “I know about the case of Amit Kumar. We are now upgrading the system to issue degrees on time. Kumar will also get his degree soon.”
Kumar graduated from RBS College affiliated to Agra University in 2003, and has since been visiting the campus “quite often, to get the degree”.
“In the last 17 years, he got married and fathered three children. But he didn’t lose hope and was ‘adamant on getting the degree without greasing the palm’ of varsity officials,” the news report said.
In his letter to Modi, he has reportedly dared him to get his B.Ed degrees from the university “without paying any bribe”. He claimed to have written to UP governor Anandiben Patel, who is the chancellor of the university, and also chief minister Yogi Adityanath, but he is “yet to get a response” from them.
Stating that he has run out of patience, Kumar has also threatened to take his life if he doesn’t get the degree certificate soon. “I cannot afford to pay Rs 20,000 bribe which the employees at the varsity had been demanding to issue my degree certificate,” he told the newspaper.
“Somehow I am bearing the expenses of the family by giving [taking] tuitions. I couldn’t land any job in the absence of the degree.”
The state-run Agra University, set up in 1927, was named Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University in 1995. The original jurisdiction, according to the university website, is “extended over the United Province of Agra, Central India and Rajputana with 14 affiliated colleges.” The university now caters to students from seven districts of UP.
Some of the well-known alumni of the university are former Prime Minister Charan Singh, former state chief minister and former union defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and the National Security Advisor to the Modi government, Ajit Doval. In 2017, Doval, H.R. Nagendra, the yoga instructor to Modi, and Tessy Thomas, associated with India’s Agni missile programme, were conferred honorary degrees at the university’s 83rd convocation ceremony.
