Summary:
TRICHY: Bharathidasan University withdrew the gold medal of a postgraduate student at the last minute on Tuesday on finding that she had been working in Annamalai university while attending the PG course.The woman, S Rajakumari, was to receive her medal from governor Banwarilal Purohit along with 67 other gold medalists at the 34th convocation of the university on Wednesday.Highly placed sources in the university said that it had come to light that Rajakumari had been working as a section officer in Annamalai University, Chidambaram. Since she was on the university premises as one among the medal winners who were rehearsing for the convocation, she was quizzed by the registrar and controller of examinations.The officials discovered that she was a non-teaching staff member at the state-run university who managed to write her MA exams without attending regular classes. That didn’t stop her from enrolling for MA (Sanskrit) course at a college affiliated to BDU in Thanjavur and also passing out with gold medal.Being a non-teaching staff member, she was not privileged to go for a sabbatical for two years to complete the course in regular mode.However, she not only continued to work at Annamalai University but also managed to get attendance from the college to write the exams.The issue surfaced at the last minute when the university authorities received an anonymous letter about Rajakumari. Hence, she was asked to leave and stay away from the convocation.A top source at the BDU registrar’s office said that a decision on Rajakumari would be taken after the probe by a committee.“An inquiry has to be conducted right from her admission to the MA course in the college at Thiruvaiyaru and how she managed to get 180 days of the mandatory attendance for each semester.However, that is impossible while working as a staff member in Annamalai university,” said the source.Meanwhile, Rajakumari’s elder brother who was also with her on the university premises created a commotion and questioned the university’s decision to withhold the gold medal.However, they left on being warned of action for “fraudulently getting a regular degree without attending classes”..