MU withdraws FDs, cancels 450 employee contracts over fund crunch

The University of Mumbai has withdrawn fixed deposits worth over Rs 111 crore in the last two years, response to an RTI (Right to Information Act) query has revealed. RTI activist Anil Galgali sought the information from the University’s Finance and Accounts Department. “It is unfortunate that the university, under its current vice chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh, is having to break its FDs even as its budget shows a surplus,” Galgali said.

A total of 100 FDs were withdrawn from various banks between November 2015 and May 2017. The highest amount encashed by prematurely withdrawing an FD was Rs 6,64,75,000 in September 2016 from Bank of Baroda that earned an interest of Rs 14,73,000. In the same month, 71 FDs were prematurely encashed. MA Khan, registrar, University of Mumbai, said that the university’s reserved funds are kept in FDs to be withdrawn as per requirement. “At present, the university is receiving only 75 per cent advance payment for salaries from the government. Salaries worth Rs 6-7 crore and pensions have to be paid. There are also some major buildings under construction, and digitisation initiatives that the FDs have been used to fund,” he said.

Recently, the university issued termination notices to over 450 contractual employees citing ‘administrative reasons’, which according to sources was to save funds. “Employees in important departments like exam house and CAP (Centralised Assessment Process) centres have been terminated. Terminating them at a time when results are delayed would lead to further delay,” said Supriya Karande, ex senate member at the university.

...& ANALYSIS

• The university should regularise all its appointments to get employees’ salaries on time from the government.
   
• At a time of financial crunch, the focus should be on paying the staff rather than spending huge sums on new initiatives.