The registrar of Jadavpur University has in a letter to the education department pleaded for an increase in funds allocated by the government for non-salary expenditure so the university “can tide over the financial deficits”.
The education department had in late-September asked JU to submit a claim for non-salary grant with item wise details, accompanied by utilisation certificates of the last grant.
The department’s order followed a letter from JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das pointing out that the government had reduced grants by about Rs 7.50 crore in the 2022- 23 financial year, compared with the previous fiscal’s sanctioned amount.
Registrar Snehamanju Basu’s letter on October 28 said the university was “really in a situation of scarcity”, as evident in the mismatch between its requirement and the amount sanctioned by the government.
The letter says the university submitted a claim of over Rs 10 crore for the first four months of the 2022-23 fiscal with item-wise details in May. But it has received only around Rs 6 crore.
“...we need help in two steps: 1. Restoring the ceiling on the full budget provision of Rs 24.99 crores, provided to us by the government; 2) Further we are pleading to revise upward the provision of our non-salary-funds (other grants), to at least the level of last financial year to Rs 32.45 crores,” the letter says.
Basu said: “A letter has been sent... detailing what we have received and what are our expenses.”
Arup Sengupta, special commissioner, higher education department, to whom the letter was addressed, declined to comment when contacted.