12 DU colleges funded by Delhi govt facing fund crunch owing to slashing of budget

New Delhi: The 12 Delhi University colleges funded by the city government are facing a fund crunch as their allocated budgets have been slashed, alleged officials of some of these institutions. Due to this, these institutions are also facing difficulties in paying salaries of teachers, they claimed.

Delhi University registrar Vikas Gupta said they will take up the issue of non-release of funds with the AAP government. The issue was also raised at the Executive Council meeting of the university held on October 29. A senior faculty member of Majaraja Agrasen College, claimed, "Teachers have not been paid their salaries for five months. The government has slashed the allocated budget by half. Not only salaries, the teachers are not getting their pension and other allowances."

Explaining the situation, Subodh Kumar, president of staff association of the Maharaja Agrasen College and coordinator of all the 12 colleges, said teachers want the teaching learning process to continue but the government is not letting it happen. "The government has an issue with the Delhi University.

The issue has been going on before the Covid pandemic. There was a tussle over the formation of governing bodies but they were formed. "Then they (govt) alleged corruption in colleges and despite various audits, they did not find anything. After the pandemic, they said they don't have money and slashed the budget. Earlier we (the college) were getting Rs 28 crore which has been brought down to Rs 16 crore," he claimed.

Terming it 'inhuman treatment', Kumar said teachers will be forced to protest to resist this arm-twisting by the government. Such is the crisis that teachers have been forced to quit jobs, he said. Hem Chand Jain, principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, said, "Last year, the government had released 42 crore (to the college) but this year they reduced it to Rs 28 crore. We have received two instalments but looking at the situation, this money will only allow us to pay salaries of six months," he claimed.

The dearness allowance and other allowances have increased under the seventh pay commission and 80 teachers have received promotions along with non staffers, he said. Before Covid pandemic, the college had 122 teachers, but now we have 115 teachers, Jain said.

"Seven teachers have left the job, including six ad-hoc teachers. One of the ad-hoc teachers is working in a school since she said she would at least get her salary on time," Jain added.

Apart from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, other colleges funded by city government are Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Bhagini Nivedita College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Maharishi Balmiki College of Education, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Science, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Sports Science and Maharaja Agrasen College.