A day after deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia told the Delhi University vice-chancellor that the government is stopping the funding of 28 colleges, DU on Thursday cited a letter claiming the government has not verified the names sent by it. Out of these 28 DU colleges, 16 get only 5% of their funds from Delhi government while 12 receive 100% funding.
A senior university official claimed that DU had sent the names of its nominees to Delhi government around April 8. “We have sent the list with more than the required names. On April 24, we sent a reminder asking the government to finalise the list so that the university can carry out the process of the GB selection. Once we get the list back, we will immediately take action,” said the official.
Despite repeated attempts, the government could not be reached. According to many principals, the lack of funds will jeopardise their functioning. Balaram Pani, the principal of Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, pointed out that in the fight between the university and the government, the colleges should not be made to suffer. “Due to the suspension of the funds, colleges will be completely paralysed. We do not have the funds to pay salaries. With end semesters round the corner, we have to get chemicals for practicals as we are an applied science college.
It is a policy decision the university and the government should sort out but funding should not stop,” said Pani. Some principals wondered why the GB term could not be extended. “In the past, the term has been extended for almost six months. It can also be done now till the process of the formation of the governing body is completed,” said a principal whose college receives 100% funding. “The government should understand that we have to pay salary to the staff and their arrears.” Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies principal Poonam Verma also said the university should have started the process earlier as “we need the funding”. According to several colleges, the trouble started because the university did not extend the GBs after their terms ended on March 8. “Usually GBs get three months’ extension but this time we did not get any instruction from the university. Usually it takes weeks to form a new GB, which we have not been given,” said another principal.
However, executive council member A K Bhagi said, “A letter has been shared on social media, which fully exposed the AAP government. The names for governing body for Delhi government-funded colleges were sent to the government by DU on April 4. But the government has not sent the GB nominations.
On April 16, the deputy CM directed the secretary (higher education) to stop the grants.” Former Academic Council (AC) member Pankaj Garg alleged that even the 16 colleges that get 5% of their funds from the government hadn’t often got their funds regularly
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