Fund-starved Punjabi varsity advances fee date

PATIALA: Struggling to meet its committed expenditure, mainly payments of pensions and salaries, due to acute financial crisis, Punjabi University has asked students to deposit fee by June 8.

Around 2,000 former employees have not been paid pension for April till date.

The varsity’s proposed expenditure on committed expenses is pegged at ₹241.8 crore. The monthly expenditure on clearing pensions is ₹4.5 crore.

As per the budgetary proposals for 2020-21 fiscal, the university is expected to generate an income of ₹218.3 crore.

“It is sad on the part of university authorities to demand semester fee by June 8 to meet its committed expenses,” said Varinder Khurana, state secretary of All India Students Federation.

In a notification issued by the varsity, fee deposited after the due date will attract fine. On the other hand, pensioners say this is for the first time in the history that the varsity failed to clear their monthly dues.

Varsity registrar Prof Manjit Singh Nijjar said the pensions were delayed due to dearth of funds. “But even shall not serve the purpose and the university might consider changing the dates for depositing semester fee,” Prof Nijjar said.