New Delhi: A high-powered committee of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has uncovered several large irregularities in granting recognition to teacher training institutes by the Northern Regional Centre (NRC) of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

All states under the jurisdiction of NRC, namely Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh have suffered due to the corruption and irregularities in the workings of the regional centre.

According to sources, such corruption is also present in several other regional centres of the NCTE and their functioning will be reviewed as well.

The committee constituted by the HRD ministry has suggested that the NRC be reconstituted, its current regional director be repatriated and strict action be taken against corrupt officials. Wide-ranging procedural changes have also been suggested by the committee.

NCTE has now come under harsh criticism for its failure to keep an eye on and monitor the functionings of its regional centres.

The committee that uncovered the irregularities was headed by a joint secretary of the HRD ministry. According to its findings, the NRC delayed issuing deficiency letters to institutions that were seeking recognition from the NCTE. The NCR had also delayed communication with the state governments seeking its clearance within a month.

Also, the deficiencies which were pointed out by the NRC for not granting recognition to certain institutes were vague, and several times, incorrect. The NRC regional director has been blamed for not noticing the deficiencies which had been pointed out were factually wrong.

The findings of the HRD committee also revealed that the applications from institutes seeking clearance were not processed chronologically and the system for the procedure of granting recognition that has been well laid out by the NCTE had not been followed.