Are some people in State making money in UNESCO's name?
Two arrested by Delhi Police for cheating in name of UNESCO
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 15 2014 : There is strong suspicion over some people in the State making money in the name of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) .

The suspicion came to light after Hueiyen Lanpao made a thorough enquiry to UNESCO offices at New Delhi and Bangkok about its operations in the State.

Recently, there have been reports in the local media and some national papers about one Global Youth Meet-2014, which is to be held from February 20 to 25 at Hotel Classic, North AOC.

The 'global' event, where more than 600 delegates (16-40 years) from around 106 Nations will attend' is being jointly organized by Club25 International, Manipur and UNESCO Youth Foundation with 'the support of Government of India, Government of Manipur, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Club25 International, USA and various other public and private sectors' .

The UNESCO Youth Foundation is said to be an NGO based at Bangkok whose Director is a Manipuri lad, who is also an office bearer of the co-organizer Club25 International, Manipur.

Having doubts with the credentials of UNESCO Youth Foundation, an enquiry was made to UNESCO offices at New Delhi and Bangkok through emails and phone calls.

Subsequently, Director and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka based at New Delhi, Shigeru Aoyagi sent an email to Hueiyen Lanpao through the Documentalist and Public Information in-charge of UNESCO New Delhi Office Rekha Beri.

The UNESCO officials confirmed that UNESCO Youth Foundation, supposedly based at Bangkok, is not associated with the UNESCO in any way.

The email from the Director read as "We wish to confirm that the NGO mentioned in your email, namely, UNESCO Youth Foundation does not maintain any official relations with UNESCO under the Directives concerning UNESCO's relations with foundations and similar institutions, nor as an NGO under the Directives concerning UNESCO's partnership with non-governmental organizations.

To this effect, we are officially writing to them (representatives of UNESCO Youth Foundation) to refrain from using UNESCO logo and acronym both in name of their organization as also on their website" .

The same thing was also confirmed by the officials of UNESCO Bangkok Office.

In an email sent to Hueiyen Lanpao, Adviser for Communication and Information & Chief, Information and Knowledge Management Unit of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau, Bangkok Rosa M Gonzalez said, "Thank you for your e-mail and phone call of today.

After consulting with my colleagues in Bangkok, Delhi and HQs, I can confirm that this foundation (UNESCO Youth Foundation) does not maintain official relations with UNESCO.

Our office in Delhi has already requested them to refrain from using UNESCO logo and acronym both in the name of their organization as also on their website" .

It is quite intriguing as to how a 'fake' Foundation has been able to come up with a bold plan to organize a global event here in the State.

There is strong suspicion over involvement of powerful hands in setting up such NGO.

Interestingly, the UNESCO Youth Foundation has begun recruiting staffs which include some IT professionals.

It may be recalled here that last month, The Hindustan Times reported that the Delhi Police's economic offences wing (EOW) arresting an alleged conman for cheating several companies and individuals of crores of rupees by pretending to be associated with the UNESCO and the Ministry of Human Resource Development on December 16, 2013 .

The police also arrested a female aide of the conman.

Shubhendu Sorcar, a resident of Guwahati, and his associate Debashree Chatterjee were arrested on Sunday from a hotel in Jaipur.

They had allegedly cheated a number of people on the pretext of providing them government tenders and contracts for organising cultural events and tool crores of rupees as kickbacks.

Sorcar allegedly organised cultural events in major cities and invited politicians, film stars and popular singers in order to impress his targets.

Interestingly, he even cheated the event organisers and never paid them, police said.

The EOW had received a number of complaints about Sorcar running an organization by the name of National Educational Research and Development (NERDP) that claimed to be associated with international organizations.

"He used to project that NERDP was an organisation supported by UNESCO and recognized by the ministry for carrying out activities related to higher education in India," said joint commissioner of police (EOW) Praveer Ranjan.

During investigation, it was learnt that Sorcar, ran a big office in Hauz Khas.

"A complaint filed by the HRD ministry said he had taken Rs.80 crore as earnest money for a contract worth Rs.4,500 crore for the construction of educational hubs in major metropolitan cities across India," said Ranjan.

Sorcar had also taken close to Rs.2 crore to organise an event.

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