Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state government will register a case against the vice-chancellor of a private university in Meghalaya for fraudulently obtaining an OBC certificate from the state’s Karimganj district 32 years ago.
Sharma on Wednesday said Mahbabul Haque, vice-chancellor of the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM), had obtained a certificate of belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in 1992. The chief minister said the OBC certificate was cancelled in August 1996 on the basis of a complaint in the same year as it was found that Haque was not eligible to receive the certificate.
“The Karimganj district commissioner should have initiated action against him at that time but did not do so. But now we will lodge an FIR against Haque,” he said. Earlier this month, Sharma had blamed USTM and its owner and vice-chancellor Haque for “flood jihad” in Guwahati. The chief minister claimed that the institute had damaged the hills in its campus, leading to massive waterlogging in Guwahati. The university is located on a hill near the city.