Mumbai: These ghost colleges admit students, but don’t exist

At least three junior colleges that took part in the latest centralised online admission exist only on paper as their space has been occupied by someone else pointing to serious lapses by the education department midday also came across several junior colleges listed in the admission process operating from the oneplusone commercial shops or are surrounded by houses When a reply was sought from the education department they dodged the questions for daysThis newspaper extracted the data on the junior colleges from the website of the state education departmentAlso read Mumbai Colleges get ready for the big hybrid switchMatrubhoomi Education Society High School and Junior College Kandivli It has just one classroom PicNimesh DavePace Junior Science College BorivliThis institutersquos old address appears in government records PicNimesh DaveThis college has its address at Jaybhadra Villa SVP Road Mandapeshwar Borivli West But midday could not locate the place On phone they said it has moved to the 4th floor at Shree Vallabh Society above Pantaloons store SV Road Borivli West The college is in a commercial complexA management official said ldquoWe have been running this college for many years and a year ago we shifted the college to this location We have all the permission to run the college We have to check with the education department why itrsquos not updated in the admission list Our last yearrsquos examination was also conducted at this place onlyrdquoRao Junior CollegeRao Junior College Kharghar The place is now shut PicSumeet RenoseRao Junior College Sion which was allotted 13 students for the academic year 202223 has cited its address as opposite SIES College no 16A1 16A2 New Sindhi Colony Sion West But midday found a popular pizza joint there The eatery employees said they have no idea if there was any college at the spot earlier A security guard at the New Sion Colony adjacent to the pizza joint spoke on the condition of anonymity ldquoThere was a Rao college here a couple of years ago It got shifted but we donrsquot know whererdquo The college has mentioned 120 as its intake capacityA teacher who taught biology at the Sion college spoke off the records ldquoIt was an integrated college where lectures were followed by coaching classes It suddenly closed down in 2019 and we were not paid for two months I still get calls from parents and students inquiring about the college I donrsquot know why my number has been shared with the education department as that of the contact person and still shows up on the admission portalrdquo she saidThe address of Rao Junior Collegersquos Andheri branch is shown as Centre Square SV Road Andheri W When midday visited the place we found some other private coaching centre had rented the space Suryakant Choudhary a teacher and the owner of the unit said ldquoI had rented my two galas on the 4th floor to Rao IIT classes in 2008 Around 2018 they established a junior college on the same floor by renting a few more galas Within a couple of years they vacated the place where they didnrsquot even pay the electricity billsrdquoThe floor still has a board carrying notices of 2020 pinned by Rao Junior College When Choudhary was told that his unitrsquos address has been provided to the education department he said ldquoI will get in touch with the department to make necessary changesrdquoPlot No 21 Sector 7 Kharghar is also an address of Rao Junior College on the 11th admission portal midday found the shutters of the premises located in a commercial complex down Neighbouring shopkeepers said it was closed ldquoa couple of yearsrdquo ago ldquoWe still get queries about the college and some parents come here looking for it We wonder how the address hasnrsquot been updated or verified by the authoritiesrdquo said one of themmidday tried to contact Rao administration including Vinaykumar Pandey Yamini Rao and Dr BV Rao but nobody responded Emails sent to the addresses mentioned on their own website and provided to the education department remained unansweredParesh Mahale said he admitted his son to the Thane Naupada branch in May 2019 ldquoI thought my son would get college education as well as tuition for his IIT preparation But like me many parents got cheated as the college didnrsquot function We filed a police case against the directors in March 2022 but the education department hasnrsquot even taken cognisance of it In fact it has given them extension till January 2023rdquoDVM High School and Junior College KandivliDVM High School and Junior College Kandivli East PicNimesh DaveThis institute has 78 classrooms and is run by a trust It started a junior college last year and now has 7 students all from the same school Its trustee Virendrasingh Mishra said ldquoWe have all permission to run the school and junior college We are giving the best education in all possible mannershellip Our premises are small because we are selffinancedrdquoSardar Vallabhbhai Patel Junior College of Commerce and Science Borivli WestSardar Vallabhbhai Patel Junior College of Commerce and Sciencersquos address takes one to this school PicNimesh DaveThe institutersquos address has been listed as New Link Road IC Colony Borivli West found that the junior college was shifted to somewhere else last year A private school has now come up at the locationA member of the management said ldquoClass affiliated to two boards cannot run from the premises as per state government rules So we shifted our school and college to Dahisar West now We also informed the state government to update our address in the admission list But next year our college name will come with the updated addressrdquoNutan Saraswati Hindi High School and Junior College MulundLocated at Amar Nagar Mulund Colony this place has five rooms for students from Hindi and Marathi medium as well as the junior college Though included in the admission list most of its students come through the offline route The college administration refused to talkAditya Academy High School amp Junior College AareyThis school and college is located at Unit No 32 of Aarey Milk Colony near the Film City Santosh Nagar Goregaon East Its trustee Ruhina Chotaliya said ldquoWe have been running this school for many years We have only 4 students in junior college Mostly our students take admission in our college We are giving good education to all our studentsrdquoSaraswati Vidya Niketan Junior college of Science and Commerce VikhroliSaraswati Vidya Niketan is in the midst of houses PicRajesh GuptaIn Vikhroli Saraswati Vidya Niketan Junior college of Science and Commerce is located at Upper Depot pada Sagar Nagar and is surrounded by houses It is spread over five to six units some of which sit above localsrsquo homes The staff said they will try to acquire more places whenever redevelopment happensDirector Vishal Bandgar said ldquoThe junior college has been registered with the education department since 2009 Then there were no criteria of having a minimum area We have our own school from Std I to X hence we got the permissionrdquo About enrolment for 202223 Bandgar said ldquoWe have got 100 admissions for science and commerce Being a college from a slum pocket most shift elsewhere but those parents who canrsquot afford fees and the cost of commute send their children to our collegerdquoMatrubhoomi Education Society High School and Junior College KandivliThis junior college has just one classroom PicNimesh DaveThis place is in the vicinity of the national park It can be accessed via a narrow lane through a slum The college has just 1 room The staff said ldquoThe government gave us permission to run the junior college along with the school We are trying to give the best education We have only 7 students in junior college but we have the best teachersrdquoEducation deptrsquos responseSandeep Sangave deputy director education didnrsquot respond to specific questions over Rao Colleges and other junior colleges having no infrastructure at all He said ldquoThe dept does carry out regular inspections but I have to check files before talking specifically about any collegerdquo2009When the junior college was registered with the edu dept120Intake capacity of Rao Junior College Sion branch