Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Mumbai University hasn’t adopted UGC Policy on plagiarism



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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