Visakhapatnam: Some affiliated colleges have been giving a splitting headache to Andhra University which is already in a tight financial spot. Several affiliated colleges of AU had not paid the affiliation charges over the last 3-4 years, choking off the finances of the varsity. According to official estimates, these dues amount to nearly Rs 10 crore and the varsity officials are in a fix over further action.
With the emergence of various new universities in the state between 2006 and 2009, the number of colleges that are affiliated to AU has come down from over 700 a few years ago to 471 at present. The premier varsity of the state had lost several engineering colleges to other new varsities in this process which made a bigger dent to its coffers. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Andhra University Registrar Prof. V. Uma Maheswara Rao informed that they would slap notices on those colleges which have not paid the dues.
“We don’t hesitate to take punitive action on those colleges but we would provide them ample time to pay off the dues before initiating any action,” Prof. Rao added. Even for the recent interaction meet called for by the varsity officials, representatives of many colleges hadn’t turned up, forcing the intervention of HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao. Mr. Rao directed the officials to issue show cause notices to the absentees.
Meanwhile, a private degree college correspondent said that declining admissions into the degree colleges and fee reimbursement scheme have been negatively affecting the functioning and future of various degree colleges which form a major part of the varsity. However, one thing to cheer about is that AU would get about Rs 100 crore appropriated under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) ‘Universities with Potential for Excellence’ as it was awarded ‘A’ grade by the NAAC team recently, consecutively for three cycles of accreditation. “We have to prepare the detailed project reports to apply funds under these projects and it may take some time before proceeding with that work in the university,” added the AU Registrar.
