HRD Ministry Gives Panjab University Rs 50 Crore Grant

Cash-starved Panjab University (PU) heaved a sigh of relief after the University Grants Commission (UGC) had released a grant of Rs 50 crore to the university.

The vice-chancellor of PU, Prof Arun Grover said, "We are happy to hear about it. It is a nice coincidence that the approval of the grant has coincided with the arrival of eminent film lyrist Gulzar on the campus."

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Before that, the VC had met Prakash Javedkar, Union HRD Minister along with Satya Pal, a former BJP MLA to seek the release of the grant.

While the Dean Student Welfare said that their main worry was the payment of salaries to the teachers and other staff. Now the grant would help them pay the salaries of the staff.

Due to the crisis, the recent meetings of the University syndicate and senate had stalled. Cash-starved University is trying to manage its fiscal affairs on day to day basis. The UGC had already released Rs 40 crore in June this year.

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To cope with the financial crisis and to generate revenue at the internal level, the University had recently hiked the examination fee to raise additional Rs 35 crore. UGC was insisting that the university should take some steps at its own level to generate additional revenue.

Joint Secretary of UGC JK Tripathi, in the meeting of the Board of Finance of the University, had recently clearly stated that until the University generates fiscal resources at its own level, the UGC would not be able to release more grant.

Right now the university requires Rs 305 crore to balance its books and remove the deficit of last year. So far the university has got only Rs 90 crore from the UGC and Rs 20 crore from the state government as a grant.