Rajahmundry: Potti Sriramulu Telugu university is in dire straits as its employees have not been paid for the last three months. Telephone and power bills are pending for more than a year and maybe disconnected anytime as BSNL and EPDCL authorities are sending notices to clear arrears.
In the aftermath of bifurcation of the state, the main branch of the university located in Hyderabad was allotted to Telangana state. There was a proposal to develop one of the three peetams located in Rajahmundry as a full-fledged university as it is located on about 40 acre land along NH-16 near Bommuru village.
Two other peetams are located at Srisailam and Kuchipudi. The one located at Srisailam promotes Telugu history and sculptor while the one at Kuchipudi promotes the traditional dance of Kuchipudi.
The university offers postgraduation, M.Phil and PhD courses. Soon after bifurcation, the employees faced a tough time in getting their salaries as the main branch refused to pay it.
Subsequently, both the state government and UGC are paying salaries to the employees but they are not regular. Employees allege that they are in debt as they are borrowing money to run their households.
Retired staff in the last two years failed to get even a single rupee as retirement benefits given to government employees. Though a proposal was made earlier to develop the Rajahmundry Peetam which promotes Telugu literature as a full-fledged university, there is not much progress so far.
University authorities say that given huge sprawling campus, it can be developed as full-fledged Telugu University for AP and several new diploma courses in fine arts, classical music, dance, theatre arts, and others can be started as there is a huge demand for them.
Posts like vice-chancellor, registrar, officer on special duty, professors, associate professors and assistant professors are yet to be created and filled.
Telugu university dean Yendluri Sudhakar said, “We appeal to the state government to take initiative and set up a full-fledged Telugu university for AP in our campus and sanction new posts and fill them up. We are getting wages once in three months and some our employees are in heavy debt as they have to borrow even to meet daily expenses,” he said.
