Out of the 28 colleges under University of Delhi, the Delhi Government fully funded 12 colleges and partially funded the remaining 16. According to some sources, the Delhi government gives about 360 crores annually to the 28 colleges. The Delhi government has now decided to pull its funding for all the 28 colleges if the DU Executive Council does not appoint governing bodies of the colleges by July 31. These colleges have been operating without a governing body for several months now. They have not had full governing bodies since October 2016, which is when their term ended. This is the first time that the bodies were not given a three-month extension. The government has alleged that there has been a “deliberate attempt” to delay the formation of the bodies.
Taking up the matter, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia ordered both the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) and the Finance Department to stop the funding for these colleges if the governing bodies are not appointed by July 31. DU and the Delhi government had to nominate five members each to the panels, to which Mr. Sisodia said that DU had been holding up the appointments by not sending the names of its nominees on time. The series of actions that infuriated DHE were: DHE writing to the Registrar of DU, asking for the panel of names on September 16, 2016. And then, separate reminders were sent on November 25, 2016, December 29, 2016 and February 1, 2017.Finally on February 14, a panel of names was sent by DU to the government. The AAP government then sent its panel of names for the approval of the Executive Council on March 6. On April 4, the government was asked to send details about the nominees in a different format. The list was again sent to the university by the government on May 11. The list was then tabled before the Executive Council on July 3, but it was not approved. A meeting of the council on July 6 was postponed. The matter was again tabled before the council on July 14, but it was not approved and a new committee was formed to review it.
Mr. Sisodia has ordered the DHE that the funds, including for salaries and contingency grants, should not be disbursed after August 1 if the governing bodies are not in place by July 31. The Finance Department has also been informed not to release the funds until a written communication confirming the appointments is not received.
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Radhika Boruah
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