Varsities told to deposit funds with government

HYDERABAD/GUNTUR: In an unusual move, the Higher Education Department has asked several universities in the state to park their  surplus funds in the accounts of the state government at  an interest rate of 9.5 per cent per annum.Senior officials said the move is unheard of.  Principal secretary (higher education) M G Gopal recently wrote to various universities in the state, including some of the newer ones, directing them to ‘remit their bank balances immediately not required for utilisation’ into the accounts of the state government. However, he did not mention the reasons for this unusual decision. University authorities were taken aback by the fiat from the Higher Education Department.Upon receiving the letter last week, authorities of the Acharya Nagarjuna University convened a meeting on April 7 and decided not to do as told because the varsity is facing a severe fund crunch.  The university’s officiating registrar, G Prasad, consulted the heads of the departments and wrote to Gopal a letter with the balance sheets of the university attached, explaining the financial status of the university in the last two to three years.“We have sent an officer to Hyderabad to discuss the matter with the government,” Prasad told Express. The university’s income has been hit by decline in admissions in the last two years. Its affiliated colleges too have witnessed a decline in enrolment in PG courses.The situation is similar in most of the universities in the state. So they too responded in a similar manner to the Higher Education Department. Some of them even wrote back requesting the principal secretary to clear their pending bills and release the funds promised to them.Sources in the Finance Department told Express they are not aware of the move by the Higher Education Department.  A senior official said the financial status of the state exchequer is fairly good, and added that the government cannot seek funds from universities which are autonomous bodies.Repeated attempts by Express to contact principal secretary Gopal on the telephone were unsuccessful.