The joint charity commissioner has dissolved the governing council of the Shikshan Prasarak Mandali and appointed a new administrator for it. For the last six months, dna and Zee 24 Taas have been exposing the irregularities in the functioning of the Mandali.
Joint charity commissioner Anilkumar Dige had instituted an inquiry into the alleged irregularities and on Monday he appointed assistant charity commissioner Navnath Jagtap as administrator of the Mandali. With this appointment, the governing council of the Mandali stands dissolved, informed advocate Mihir Prabhudesai, who along with one Laxmikant Desai, had approached the charity commissioner's office against the Mandali.
The trust was in news after an income tax raid on it involving Rs106 crore came to light. After reassessment, the amount was found to be Rs30 crore and the educational institution decided to own up the responsibility of the irregularities.
Shikshan Prasarak Mandali is an over 125-year-old reputed educational trust. Also known as Shi Pra Mandali, the trust has its head office in Pune and has 40-odd educational institutions in cities like Pune, Mumbai, Solapur and Ratnagiri with some extensions in Benguluru too. The reputation of the trust could be understood when one looks at its institutions like Nutan Marathi Vidyalay (Numavi) Prashala and Sir Parshurambhau College or SP College in Pune, Ruia College, Poddar College and Welingkar Institute in Mumbai and Haribhai Devkaran Prashala in Solapur.
The infighting within the governing council members which went up to the extent of a tug of war for controlling the institution's rein had brought to the fore the ugly face of the otherwise noble field of education. It was dna and Zee24Taas which exposed the irregularities in Shi Pra Mandali in a news series.
Jagtap would be monitoring the functioning of Mandali till election to the governing council is conducted in February 2016. While appointing administrator, Dige has also ordered that governing council chairman Abhay Dadhe, secretary Medha Pandit and member Jayant Shaligram would assist Jagtap for carrying out day to day work since these officials know the details and are the signing authorities of the many bank accounts of the Mandali.
Objecting to the order of Dadhe, Pandit and Shaligram to assist the administrator, advocate Bhalchandra Radkar, who is a former vice-chairman of the governing council, said that he would approach the high court against this decision. He said that it was not proper to appoint the very same people who are facing allegations of corruption.
