Mumbai University hasn’t
adopted UGC Policy on plagiarism
MU has not adopted the University Grant
Commission’s policy to tackle plagiarism cases, alleged Neeraj Hatekar, former
head of the school of economics at Mumbai University, who faces charges of
plagiarism.
Hatekar recently wrote to the governor asking him
to direct the MU to adopt UGC guidelines to look into plagiarism cases.
More Insight @ Press
Release
Economics professor
denies accusations of plagiarism
Requests
Mumbai University to set up inquiry into allegations
An economics
professor of Mumbai University yesterday denied accusations of plagiarism made
against him for a Ph.D he submitted in December 1993. Neeraj Hatekar, who was
doing his Ph.D in economics from Mumbai University between December 1989 to
December 1993, was accused by Swati Vohra, a lecturer in a city college, of
plagiarism.
"My
wife, Rajani Mathur, was going for her M.Phil in the department of economics
from 1992-1993 and submitted her dissertation in May 1993," said Hatekar.
"I wrote a paper in the department of economics in 1991-92, titled 'A
critique of the Lucas Critique' and my wife used some parts of this paper in
her M.Phil dissertation after duly acknowledging the source," he added. He
also said that his work was acknowledged in the bibliography of Mathur's
thesis. "This clearly shows that rather than me plagiarising from Rajini
Mathur's thesis, her work depends on mine, with due acknowledgement," said
Hatekar.
Hatekar also
feels the allegations against him are "misconceived" and
"mischievious" as they ommited the pages where the acknowlegements
were given.
In the
aftermath of the complaint, Mumbai University appointed a committee to investigate
the matter. "I submitted a reply to the varsity explaining my
situation," said Hatekar. "A letter was also given by Rajini Mathur
stating that it was she who used my work with my permission," he added.
However, Hatekar slammed the committee of conducting their business in an
"unprofessional" manner, by not formulating a proper charge-sheet and
making technical mistakes.
Hatekar
feels that the University of Mumbai does not have a statutorily provided
mechanism to deal with these issues and in the absence of such guidelines, the
committees that are being appointed to probe into these charges are arbitary
and ad-hoc in nature and can be used by vested interests to settle personal
scores. "To avoid this, the Univeristy must conduct a fair and transparent
enquiry into the charges of plagiarism against me following due statutory
processes," said Hatekar.
"I am
hopeful that within the next fortnight a proper prodecure is set in place
following the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines and that the enquiry
is conducted," he added.
It was not
possible to get comments from the accuser, Swati Vohra.
Source | Afternoon
dated 6th March 2018
Regards
Prof. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library & Information Science (NET
Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
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