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Ishrat S Banwait
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 20
The fiscal crisis of Panjab University seems set to end with the Centre and Punjab both increasing their grant. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has agreed to give Rs 207.80 crore to the PU this year against Rs 197.73 crore received for 2016-17. This has been stated in a letter addressed to the Secretary, UGC, a copy of which was sent to the Vice-Chancellor.
The Punjab Government today announced in its Budget that it would give the PU Rs 33 crore per year instead of Rs 26 crore, which includes Rs 6 crore for its four constituent colleges.
The university has been seeking a 15 per cent yearly hike in the grant from the MHRD. The Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) had raised the demand with HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar during his visit to the city earlier this month. However, the letter says the hike in grant will be 6 per cent per year, starting 2018-19.
Today, the Punjab Finance Minister, in his Budget speech, announced the hike for the PU saying that over the years, the grant for the university had been dwindling to the extent that it was finding it difficult to meet its day-to-day requirements.
The grant for the PU is Rs 20 crore while the remaining Rs 6 crore is for its four constituent colleges in Punjab. The government provides the PU a grant of Rs 1.5 crore for each college and has asked the PU to take up two more colleges. However, the PU has asked the state to give it a written assurance that Punjab will provide grant for the two colleges as well. If this increase in grant includes the grant for the two new colleges, then the actual increase in grant for the PU will be merely Rs 4 crore.
GS Chadha, Registrar, and Senators welcomed the news and so did PUTA president Promila Pathak, who thanked the MHRD. Student parties have also welcomed the move and are trying to take credit for it. FDO Vikram Nayyar said, "We will do our best with what we get."
Affiliation: PU’s rider for Hry
In what could be yet another positive for the university, it has submitted a proposal to the Haryana Government, which has been seeking affiliation for nearby colleges. Haryana had offered a matching grant as that of Punjab to the PU for affiliation of its colleges in Panchkula. The university has agreed to it, but has asked for a 40 per cent grant for affiliation of colleges in Panchkula and Ambala.
Good beginning by new Punjab Govt: VC
"An amount of Rs 7 crore more from the Punjab Government is an annualised rate of increase at 7.8 per cent from 2013-14 to 2017-18 when the Central Government started releasing grant from the Non-Plan budget. It's a good beginning by the new Punjab Government after a long gap. The Rs 7 crore will also cover the shortfall in the projected internal income for 2017-18, which occurred due to the partial rollback of the proposed increase in fee by the Senate at its meeting on May 7."
— Prof Arun K Grover, VC
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