University ‘siphons off ’ Rs 50K registration fees of Senate poll

The Mumbai University (MU), which has failed to declare the results of several courses on scheduled time, has been accused of embezzling funds of Rs 50,000 registration fees from the Senate election.

This information has been given to Anil Galgali under the Right to Information Act. The state government has cancelled the election of the Senate after registration by the Mumbai University.

RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the MU with his application under the Graduate voters’ list and a total fee for the selection of University Senate elections in 2015.

Mumbai University ViceChancellor (Election Department) Ravindra Salve informed Anil Galgali that Under Category ‘A’ — 2521 — and Category ‘B’ — 2492 — a total of 5,013 applications were received.

Despite cancellation of the Senate elections, the fees deposited by the Mumbai University were not refunded.

The application ‘A’ was for new voters who paid Rs 20 as fees. The application ‘B’ did not have any specific category for the fees as they were all old voters.

In this case, the Finance and Accounts Department of Mumbai University told Galgali that Rs 6,820 were collected in July 2015, Rs 43,480 in August 2015 and on September 2015, Rs 120 were collected. A total of Rs 50,420 was received by MU.

Galgali said even after the cancellation of the Senate elections, the MU has not returned the fees to the voters till date. This is a method of embezzling funds as the money was deposited for a specific reason — the Senate elections.

Galgali, has written a letter to Governor Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Education Minister Vinod Tawde and Minister of State for Education Ravindra Waikar, demanding MU should refund the money with interest to every graduate student.