Rs 215 crore was given to 16 varsities under 12th Five Year Plan
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Hyderabad: Though they blame lack of funds for not undertaking development work, several universities in Telangana and AP have not spent their quota of funds given by the University Grants Commission. The UGC grants general development assistance funds to universities to scale up physical infrastructure and hire faculty.
The UGC has reported that GDA funds were not released to 11 of the 15 universities in the two in 2014-15 because the funds previously allotted were not spent. GDA funds were released only to Acharya Nagarjuna University, SV University, Yogi Vemana University and Nalsar.
Under the 12th Five Year Plan, a total of Rs 215 crore had been allocated to 16 universities in the two states. Though the Planning Commission has been abolished by the NDA government, the UPA government launched 12th FYP will continue in its original form. As such, allocations under the 12th FYP continue to be released to intended beneficiaries.
But a recent statement released by the UGC shows that 16 varsities have reported expenditure of just Rs 44.61 crore in the first three years of the FYP. Except Andhra University, Osmania University and Telangana University, all the others are yet to submit their utilisation certificates.
According to the UGC, the largest grants were released to Osmania University and SV University. UGC said that out of the Rs 12.78 crore released to Osmania University, it had spent just Rs 1.27 crore and SV University spent Rs 7.4 crore out of the Rs 11.1 crore released to it.When asked about this, Osmania University Registrar Prof. E. Suresh Kumar said, “The figures are not true because it can’t be that we spent just Rs 1 crore when more than Rs 10 crore was released. We have given all utilisation certificates.” Submission of utilisation certificates is necessary for the UGC to release arrears.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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