Around 28 colleges under DU are fully or partially funded by the state government. While 12 colleges counting Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Maharaj Agrasen and Shaheed Rajguru are fully funded, other 16 including Gargi, Sri Aurobindo, Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Motilal Nehru College enjoy partial economic assistance.
The college authorities are constantly struggling to manage their expenses without funds for months which is affecting the functioning and management of their entire institution.
Pertaining to the above mentioned issue, DUTA had even sent a letter to the Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal earlier in the month of September to reach a positive conclusion.”You would agree that this action of denial of salaries to the teaching and non-teaching staff of these colleges amounts to a violation of basic human rights. Your reasons, whatsoever they may be, do not warrant such an assault on the living conditions of the employees,” it read.
The problem has been going on for a long time now and the bone of contention has been around the subject of the formation of governing bodies in the university.This tiff is posing serious issues of concern and the ad-hoc teaching and non-teaching staff are the worst affected.
The University has formed an apex committee in the past to look in the matter but nothing fruitful has so far been achieved according to the protesters. Where some colleges are paying salary to the staff from their savings or other funds, the faculty at Deen Dayal Upadhaya college is reported to be working without pay since the last three months.
Alongside, DUTA has raised various other concerns and demands which include action required against the adverse student-teacher ratio, funds for the new courses introduced in various colleges and better infrastructure. The protesters have also argued that the ones who who are suffering the most in the long run are the students as they don’t have adequate staff and infrastructure in college.
Reverting back to the protests and statements , Sisodia who is the deputy CM and holds the education portfolio has demanded Transparency and Accountability from the university.
As alleged by Sisodia, the funds were given in the month of June which the colleges exhausted without providing an account of the expenditure. AAP has demanded the formation of the governing bodies preceding which no funds will be granted.
“I cannot keep giving Delhi’s taxpayers money for DU corruption. People are being appointed illegally, money being spent without accountability. DU has to be transparent and accountable to the Delhi government if they need money.”, he told PTI.
Thereby, no conclusion or settlement has been reached on the matter so far and as bruited, DU may witness more such protests during the course of this week.
