DU dilemma: How to spend ₹151 crore UGC aid in 8 days
DELHI UNIVERSITY HAD TO RETURN ₹108 CRORE TO THE UGC BECAUSE IT WAS UNABLE TO USE IT
Most educational institutions in India struggle for funds but Delhi University has a different problem. It had to return ~108 crore to the University Grants Commission because it was unable to spend it.
The rest, ~151 crore, has to be utilised by March 31. It has only seven days to identify projects where it can spend this money on. The funds were given to the university under different heads.
Between 2012 and 2017, an amount of ~300 crore was given to DU to upgrade its infrastructure. Out of this, only ~100 crore was utilised. Due to non-utilisation, the other ~105 crore lapsed. Now, it has time till March 31 to use the remaining ~95 crore.
The UGC disbursed ~3 crore to buy books for the libraries. But having missed the March 15, 2017 deadline, DU had to return this fund as well to the Commission.
The ~56.7 crore earmarked to DU’s Faculty of Management Studies, South Campus, to develop itself into a centre for excellence is also about to lapse. This fund was allocated ten years ago but the varsity could not think of appropriate ways to utilise them.
“On March 3, a letter was sent to buy books and submit the bills before March 15. It was not possible to select journals and books in that short period, so the fund has gone now,” said an official in DU’s central library on condition of anonymity.
For the excellence grant UGC had once in the past given an extension, but still the amount remains unused.
“This amount was given to the Faculty of Management Studies in south campus for expanding the buildings and developing infrastructure. As it is in the ridge area the university they could not get environmental clearances. So they could have taken up the matter with UGC and utilized it for other purposes. But they sat on it and now do not know how to utilize it,” said Rajesh Jha, an executive council member and political science teacher at Rajdhani College.
The university is now proposing to utilize the funds meant to develop a centre of excellence and the remaining 95 crore to buy different Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flats across the city.
They say they will then later develop this into accommodation for teaching, non-teaching staff and hostels for students.
“It has been decided at the EC that the if DDA allows the university will purchase the flats from the unused amount. The university will also write to the UGC to give them more time to utilize the funds,” said AK Bhagi, another executive council member and teacher at Dyal Singh College.
But the universities justification to not being able to use the funds is in the delay in receiving funds from UGC.
“The fund of ~300 crore that was sanctioned it reached the university one and half years late. Then as the funds were focused on infrastructure the entire process got delayed due to the procedural hassles,” said a senior university official.