State varsities lag in funds cert submission

KOLKATA: Data from the higher education department on Monday has shown universities have received Rs 96.87 crore infrastructure grants from the state.
This comes soon after the University Grants Commission revealed Rs 60.23 crore was released to the nine state universities including Presidency University, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University during the XIIth financial plan.
The nine state-run-universities had submitted utilization certificate (UC) of only Rs 10.45 crore to UGC and in case of state funds, only Rs 36.10 crore UC has been reported by all the old and new varsities.“The pending UC for UGC funds which the universities need to submit is Rs 49.78 crore and for state funds the amount of UC due is Rs 60.77 crore,“ said a senior higher education department official.
Sabyasachi Basu Roychoudhury, V-C of Rabindra Bharati University, said, “The state has sanctioned Rs 11.42 crore for RBU and released Rs 9.94 crore. We have already submitted UC for Rs 7.12 crore. For the remaining, work is in progress. I believe that we shall be able to hand over the completion certificate within the stipulated time for end of XIIth financial plan year.“
Sources, however, claimed the biggest defaulters in submitting UC are the old universities. “The varsities, which have been established for a long time and receive several other grants apart from the state plan fund for infrastructure, may not be interested to complete the projects undertaken by utilizing the state-provided funds. Hence, majority of the established universities are bigger defaulter than the newer ones which are in the process of building a new campus. Hence, at the end of the audit, unutilized funds will have to be refunded,“ said a source.