Maldivian students in bangalore being abused...
Friday, May 11, 2007
Bangalore is a well-known target for higher education among a number of Maldivians. The location is preferred as a result of the cheap costs and the adequate quality of education provided. By taking advantage of this fact, an Indo-Maldivian business threatens to distress the lives of Maldivian students opting to go there for higher education by allegedly ‘assisting’ them.
The business is run jointly by Nishan Pvt. Ltd., a Maldivian company, run by a half Indian- half Maldivian family, and by an Indian company - Shine enterprises Pvt. Ltd. They manage a boarding for Maldivian students in Bangalore, providing them with guardianship and makes arrangements for visa and college enrollment. The proprietor of this business is Chethan kumar (a.k.a Rajesh and many other false names, 28), who claims to be powerful enough to meet the President of Maldives without an appointment. He claims to have millions of rupees and argues that all the Maldivian students in Bangalore are under his control and supervision. But the man is not even able to appropriately provide any of the facilities and services he boasts about when he advertises and meets the parents of students opting to go to Bangalore for educational purposes. He makes these advertisements every year around February-March and brags that he provides 3* accommodation, but most of the students often have to stay without food or water for more than 24hrs.
Each student registering at this company has to pay a monthly fee of $160 which is equivalent to approximately Rs.7200(rate:Rs.45=$1). This amount is more than enough for a family to pay for one month’s accommodation, food and other basic needs, in Bangalore. He has ‘counseling’ sessions prior to registering, during which he analyses the background of the family and the income received by the family before setting the fees for that particular student. The college fees he takes are outrageous. The college fees of even the most prominent colleges in Bangalore do not exceed $1500 per year. But this guy takes more than $4000 from some of the students just to make arrangements for a college for one year. He says that he takes more from all the students for the first year, but shouldn’t the amount taken from each student be uniform? And the funny thing is he takes an additional $350 or so as service charge to make registration at a college. Even this amount is not uniform. As we all would know, students, their parents to be precise, appoint such companies in order to simplify the registration and accommodation processes and since their parents wish to provide their children with security abroad. But it is time for them to realize that things are not what they seem.
Especially from government students, he charges more by giving a hefty breakdown for the total amount. More than $8000 has been taken from some of the students having government scholarships for one year; this amount is more than enough to pay for accommodation as well as pay the course fees for an entire degree at a top college in Bangalore. Shouldn’t the government do something about this? It is a responsibility of both parents and the government to find out how their children are doing. He had promised to provide Maldivian food occasionally and regular transportation to college, in front of the parents but the food and water provided is unhygienic and students often have to go in auto-rickshaw to college after paying for transportation. Students have complained constantly but it was of no use.
Nishan Pvt. Ltd. was previously (before this business was initiated) in huge debt to the State Bank of India and the Maldivian government. But since this business started, all the liabilities have been paid off. How do you think the money was hauled to pay off all these liabilities? They were close to bankruptcy when they began drawing money from inexperienced families and the government by conning them, in the name of this ‘service’. He always avers that he doesn’t get any profit from this business and does all this as a service, especially in front of parents and senior government staff but all the major income comes from this business and not the shops run under Nishan Pvt. Ltd. They manage a total of five shops in Male’.
Rajesh claims to provide full security to all his students but according to them, Rajesh is the worst threat to their security. He is guardian by day and merely a friend by night. According to his agreement, the management would provide full guardianship to all the students, but it does not state his name. Therefore he can ask any girl to go out on dates. He enters the rooms of girls without their permission saying that he has full authority. He is an unmarried man and has no disciplinary values or conscience. He has approached most of the girls in the boarding and asked to go out for rides and even invited them to his room in the middle of the night. The man is a heavy drinker and always talks to the students about Islamic values and discipline. He always says that he doesn’t believe in religion but he believes in god, which depicts that he is a man without a way of life. After all, religion is the way of life. He may believe in god, but if he has no way of living life, he is no worse than a dog wandering the streets of Bangalore. And it’s best that he doesn’t talk about things he doesn’t know about, especially the holy Quran.
Rajesh has two separate boarding houses for students, one for girls and one for boys. That was the arrangement starting from June 2005. Before this, he used to accommodate both girls and boys in the same building, i.e., in his own home. But according to him, he separated them because it was not proper for both genders to stay in the same place and since the number of students was increasing. All the girls are now in the boarding where he lives and the boys live several blocks away. However, it was actually because he would be able to get closer to the girls without any boy interfering, since, as Maldivians, one would look out for another. By taking advantage of this, he has attempted to have intimate relations with many of the girls there. And he succeeded alright. One of the girls fell for his facades. They have sexual relations often and the girl gets better service in whatever she does. Her picture was recently posted in the most hated forum of Maldives: thebalaabodu.com, Meekaaku section. She is the daughter of a well-known figure and MP of Maldives. All of the other girls complain constantly but it seems they would get the same service if they were to have an analogous relationship with him. The two have been spotted in various locations in Bangalore and in the outskirts, especially during holidays.
His intense drinking creates a major threat to all the students, girl or boy. He owns a van, used to provide transportation to the students. Since he is drunk most of the time, when he transports the students, he drives like a madman, endangering their lives. At one incident, he hit two police officers, making a hit and run case. It was lucky he didn’t get caught. And it was even more fortunate that he didn’t collide with another vehicle and that none of the students were injured. He can’t even be allowed to drink in front of the students, let alone see the students when he is drunk. But this is common place in his case. He is unaware of what he speaks or does and doesn’t consider them as Muslims.
Young children of less than 18 years are under his local ‘guardianship’ and their parents have given him full authorization over them. They are unable to say a word or struggle for their rights and is such a man apt to take care of these students? If anything happens to them under which law would he be impeached? This business has been running for more than 4 years and none of the students, who were there within that duration, have been able to achieve their goals. Almost all of the students have left, unable to accomplish anything.
Is the business of running such a boarding house even legal? The students feel an ambiguity about the legitimacy of this business. The business of accommodating students is not registered in India and it is based on fraud and forgery, as observed by many of the students. It is illegal because he does not want the government to know it’s a business, as otherwise he would have to pay tax. He always says that the company is not a college and just a placement and accommodation service agency but how can he give false fees for the colleges?
Now, the question is why students still tolerate all this. It is because, according to his agreement, they can only register for a minimum of one year. And the parents of most of the students do not wish to leave their children without a local guardian. Furthermore, if a student wants to move, he calls up the parent or government in case of government students, and says that it is because they want freedom that they want to move and only under him can they can be molded properly. But he hardly checks up on the students. Students are free to do whatever they want but they remain unflustered. And it is a common practice of him to make trouble between the students by spreading rumors. We ask, is it safe to leave your children at the hands of such a money-hungry swindler?
The business is run jointly by Nishan Pvt. Ltd., a Maldivian company, run by a half Indian- half Maldivian family, and by an Indian company - Shine enterprises Pvt. Ltd. They manage a boarding for Maldivian students in Bangalore, providing them with guardianship and makes arrangements for visa and college enrollment. The proprietor of this business is Chethan kumar (a.k.a Rajesh and many other false names, 28), who claims to be powerful enough to meet the President of Maldives without an appointment. He claims to have millions of rupees and argues that all the Maldivian students in Bangalore are under his control and supervision. But the man is not even able to appropriately provide any of the facilities and services he boasts about when he advertises and meets the parents of students opting to go to Bangalore for educational purposes. He makes these advertisements every year around February-March and brags that he provides 3* accommodation, but most of the students often have to stay without food or water for more than 24hrs.
Each student registering at this company has to pay a monthly fee of $160 which is equivalent to approximately Rs.7200(rate:Rs.45=$1). This amount is more than enough for a family to pay for one month’s accommodation, food and other basic needs, in Bangalore. He has ‘counseling’ sessions prior to registering, during which he analyses the background of the family and the income received by the family before setting the fees for that particular student. The college fees he takes are outrageous. The college fees of even the most prominent colleges in Bangalore do not exceed $1500 per year. But this guy takes more than $4000 from some of the students just to make arrangements for a college for one year. He says that he takes more from all the students for the first year, but shouldn’t the amount taken from each student be uniform? And the funny thing is he takes an additional $350 or so as service charge to make registration at a college. Even this amount is not uniform. As we all would know, students, their parents to be precise, appoint such companies in order to simplify the registration and accommodation processes and since their parents wish to provide their children with security abroad. But it is time for them to realize that things are not what they seem.
Especially from government students, he charges more by giving a hefty breakdown for the total amount. More than $8000 has been taken from some of the students having government scholarships for one year; this amount is more than enough to pay for accommodation as well as pay the course fees for an entire degree at a top college in Bangalore. Shouldn’t the government do something about this? It is a responsibility of both parents and the government to find out how their children are doing. He had promised to provide Maldivian food occasionally and regular transportation to college, in front of the parents but the food and water provided is unhygienic and students often have to go in auto-rickshaw to college after paying for transportation. Students have complained constantly but it was of no use.
Nishan Pvt. Ltd. was previously (before this business was initiated) in huge debt to the State Bank of India and the Maldivian government. But since this business started, all the liabilities have been paid off. How do you think the money was hauled to pay off all these liabilities? They were close to bankruptcy when they began drawing money from inexperienced families and the government by conning them, in the name of this ‘service’. He always avers that he doesn’t get any profit from this business and does all this as a service, especially in front of parents and senior government staff but all the major income comes from this business and not the shops run under Nishan Pvt. Ltd. They manage a total of five shops in Male’.
Rajesh claims to provide full security to all his students but according to them, Rajesh is the worst threat to their security. He is guardian by day and merely a friend by night. According to his agreement, the management would provide full guardianship to all the students, but it does not state his name. Therefore he can ask any girl to go out on dates. He enters the rooms of girls without their permission saying that he has full authority. He is an unmarried man and has no disciplinary values or conscience. He has approached most of the girls in the boarding and asked to go out for rides and even invited them to his room in the middle of the night. The man is a heavy drinker and always talks to the students about Islamic values and discipline. He always says that he doesn’t believe in religion but he believes in god, which depicts that he is a man without a way of life. After all, religion is the way of life. He may believe in god, but if he has no way of living life, he is no worse than a dog wandering the streets of Bangalore. And it’s best that he doesn’t talk about things he doesn’t know about, especially the holy Quran.
Rajesh has two separate boarding houses for students, one for girls and one for boys. That was the arrangement starting from June 2005. Before this, he used to accommodate both girls and boys in the same building, i.e., in his own home. But according to him, he separated them because it was not proper for both genders to stay in the same place and since the number of students was increasing. All the girls are now in the boarding where he lives and the boys live several blocks away. However, it was actually because he would be able to get closer to the girls without any boy interfering, since, as Maldivians, one would look out for another. By taking advantage of this, he has attempted to have intimate relations with many of the girls there. And he succeeded alright. One of the girls fell for his facades. They have sexual relations often and the girl gets better service in whatever she does. Her picture was recently posted in the most hated forum of Maldives: thebalaabodu.com, Meekaaku section. She is the daughter of a well-known figure and MP of Maldives. All of the other girls complain constantly but it seems they would get the same service if they were to have an analogous relationship with him. The two have been spotted in various locations in Bangalore and in the outskirts, especially during holidays.
His intense drinking creates a major threat to all the students, girl or boy. He owns a van, used to provide transportation to the students. Since he is drunk most of the time, when he transports the students, he drives like a madman, endangering their lives. At one incident, he hit two police officers, making a hit and run case. It was lucky he didn’t get caught. And it was even more fortunate that he didn’t collide with another vehicle and that none of the students were injured. He can’t even be allowed to drink in front of the students, let alone see the students when he is drunk. But this is common place in his case. He is unaware of what he speaks or does and doesn’t consider them as Muslims.
Young children of less than 18 years are under his local ‘guardianship’ and their parents have given him full authorization over them. They are unable to say a word or struggle for their rights and is such a man apt to take care of these students? If anything happens to them under which law would he be impeached? This business has been running for more than 4 years and none of the students, who were there within that duration, have been able to achieve their goals. Almost all of the students have left, unable to accomplish anything.
Is the business of running such a boarding house even legal? The students feel an ambiguity about the legitimacy of this business. The business of accommodating students is not registered in India and it is based on fraud and forgery, as observed by many of the students. It is illegal because he does not want the government to know it’s a business, as otherwise he would have to pay tax. He always says that the company is not a college and just a placement and accommodation service agency but how can he give false fees for the colleges?
Now, the question is why students still tolerate all this. It is because, according to his agreement, they can only register for a minimum of one year. And the parents of most of the students do not wish to leave their children without a local guardian. Furthermore, if a student wants to move, he calls up the parent or government in case of government students, and says that it is because they want freedom that they want to move and only under him can they can be molded properly. But he hardly checks up on the students. Students are free to do whatever they want but they remain unflustered. And it is a common practice of him to make trouble between the students by spreading rumors. We ask, is it safe to leave your children at the hands of such a money-hungry swindler?
Labels: posted by Theawaykid
posted by Theawaykid coporation @ 12:06 PM
1 Comments:
At May 31, 2007 at 1:06 AM ,
Yaamyn said...
Hey I study in b'lore too.. I'm pretty aware of Maldivian students getting swindled. It's mostly because of lack of awareness and ignorance about college and education system in general.
I got into college without anyone's help, and live comfortably under 7000 indian Rupees per month (That fees thing you mentioned is outrageous!) Maybe there's a need for a fresh association of Maldivian students, with an information center for the sake of future Maldivian students.
We shouldn't let these quacks make money off our people's ignorance.
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