Himachal Pradesh Party condemns the state government for starving the universities
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Himachal Pradesh state secretariat, has strongly condemned the state government for starving the three universities from their genuine grants which they are supposed to get. The government has instead asked the respective universities to generate their resource which is beyond their scope. The Himachal Pradesh University gets an annual grant of Rs 69 crores whereas the total expenditure is more than Rs 90 crores. Similarly the Agriculture University Palampur gets an annual grant of Rs 60 crores whereas its total expenditure is over Rs 109 crores. The Nauni University too presents the same precarious condition where the university has a deficit of over Rs 40 crores. The Nauni university is getting an annual grant of Rs 48 crores whereas the expenditure is over 84 crores, if the research component is also put into consideration then their expenditure is more than Rs 120 crores which they manage from certain central grants. The party has asked the government to stop singing its rhetoric of its commitment towards higher education whereas it cannot even provide Rs 300 crores to these three premier universities; the only three in the government sector.
The party has stated, this has resulted in not paying the salaries to its faculty, staff on time and in Palampur University its been more than 3 months that the staff have been paid their salaries. The dues of the community serving these universities have galloped into several scores of crores which keep on multiplying. The pensions of the teaching faculty, other staff keeps on lingering. Their dues have piled up. And it is not in one but all the three universities that the condition has worsened.
The government bent to implement the neo liberal policies, instead of adequately funding these important universities has asked them to follow the agenda of ‘creating their own resources’, which is nothing but phenomenal increase in fees (like the recent fee hike in HPU which is over 2000%), commercialising education whereby bringing in payment seats and charging high for such seats. For a MSc in Bio technology a student lands up paying more than Rs 10 lacs . Similarly for other courses like MBA, MCA, MTA in HPU and MSc in Horticulture and Plant Pathology etc the students are either forced to pay a heavy amount for so called ‘subsidised seats’ or pay exorbitant under the payment seats. This has resulted into low research for want of funds and heeding to the interests of the big corporate houses who through various funding direct the research for their interest.
The party has further stated, all these three universities have an important role in the growth of the state not just in its Gross state domestic product (GSDP), be it agriculture, horticulture or services sector but also in producing the best of academicians in the state. Their output is high and if the state statistics is a pointer then more than 64% people thriving on agriculture itself defines the importance of these universities which the government is bent on stifling.
The Party has asked the government to immediately reverse this trend and provide adequate help to these universities .
3rd February, 2015