Thanks to scams, touts lose business

'Politician bosses' ask them to lie lowThe series of scams that hogged the limelight in the year gone by seem to have affected the mushrooming business of touts in the education sector. Till last year, the touts who had been vigorously sending SMSes and emails to students offering admissions in various colleges through donations, are now refraining from doing so this year. Further, they have been instructed by their bosses not to entertain students who don't have some good reference to back them. The reason: Most of the educational institutes are either funded by some politician or have the politicians associated with them in one way or the other. And at a time when series of scams are coming to light and people involved in them are losing their jobs, these politicians with 'educational interests' are playing it safe on every front. Shankar Anand, a student of a private college in Noida who also claims that he can get a seat in most of the reputed colleges offering professional degrees in Delhi said, If CBI or the Vigilance Department investigates into this business, it will be no less than the CWG or Adarsh society scam. This business has been growing by leaps and bounds thanks to the involvement of politicians and rates of admission keep rising every year. Almost 60 to 70 percent of the politicians are involved in the education business and they have major stake in the donations collected in these institutes.This year, however, the politicians have become extremely cautious as they don't want to come under any investigative scanner. So the instructions have gone out not to entertain any student without a proper reference. They have a strong feeling that their phones may also be under surveillance and one wrong step might cost them dearly, added Anand.Last year, MID DAY carried out a story on how the touts exploited the telecom revolution to reach out to the admission aspirants through text messages. MiD DAY also carried out a story on how these touts bought contact details of potential customers from the market and then send out 700 to 1,000 SMSes a day claiming to offer admissions in various institutes.Most of these touts are students of some reputed college. One such student studying in a reputed college in Qutub Institutional area who did not wish to be named said, By this time generally, we managed to do good business every year. But this year it is not the same. There has been a remarkable decline, as those willing to pay also are not sure whom to approach. This has also resulted in fall of admission prices. There's been a decline of about 20-30 per cent in donation rates. Cheat nabbedKumarsingh was arrested on July 21 last year by the Pune police after it came to light that he was a fraudster who duped students by promising them admission in reputable colleges. Kumarsingh and four accomplices had deposited Rs 8 lakh in a private account and collected the remaining amount through cheques.