Touts rule over campus, cops throw up hands

While Tamil Nadu takes pride in being a vital hub for higher education, in a disturbing trend campuses, particularly deemed universities offering engineering courses, are continuing to be racket dens in which students turn criminals by acting as admission touts.

The arrest of six senior students of the Dr MGR deemed university in Maduravoyal on Thursday following a clash with their peers over a monetary deal is not a one-off incident.

Over the past two years, Chennai and its suburbs have witnessed frequent violent clashes between groups of north Indian students of deemed universities following disputes over sharing of brokerage earned by recruiting' freshers from their native states. One such fracas had even led to the murder of Nirbhay Singh, a student hailing from Jharkhand last year.

While the city is used to sporadic clashes between students of the arts and science colleges over trivial issues such as protecting eve-teasing fiefdoms' or bus route wars, the current trend has shocked many since it involves cinematic abductions.

At the core of this problem is the explosive growth in the number of engineering colleges and deemed universities in the state.

With the number of engineering colleges inching towards the 500-mark, several deemed universities are starved of students, almost similar to the scene in private universities in Australia and in the West. Consequently, these institutions depend partly on their incumbent students to bring in new pupils.

"Students from Bihar or Jharkhand see an opportunity in this. They double up as agents and get admission for aspiring engineers from their home towns for a commission of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per student. With this money they lead a lavish life enjoying private accommodations as opposed to hostel rooms," alleged a student of the Dr MGR deemed university.

North Indian students studying in different institutions have a well knit network and share information on engineering aspirants. "They function almost like the real estate brokers and share the commission," says a student.

It is alleged that institute managements tacitly support such networking. While at times, they give monetary incentives, there are occasions when the senior students are exempted from paying their hostel or tuition fees as a concession for bringing in a student.

Acknowledging that such rackets were functional, a spokesperson of the Dr MGR deemed university said "the problem is that though quite a few Tamil Nadu based institutions have set up admission offices in Bihar and Jharkhand the students there do not approach them for a seat. Instead, the aspirants approach senior students who speak their native language and visit Chennai for an admission. We have advertised that we don't collect donations, yet such incidents keep happening."

Denying that institutions encouraged the practice, he said "the deal is not struck on the campus where we have our security guards doing the rounds. Everything is decided in their hometowns and we have no means to end this."