Bengal Varsities Lag Behind in Submitting Funds Utilization Certificates
These include prominent universities of Bengal namely Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, Presidency University, etc. when the announcements regarding the XIIth financial plan were made.
The University Grants Commission or the UGC recently revealed that Rs. 60.23 crore worth funds were released to nine state universities. These include prominent universities of Bengal namely Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, Presidency University, etc. when the announcements regarding the XIIth financial plan were made.
Following this, the data procured from the higher education department shows that the universities have received Rs. 96.87 crore infrastructure grants from the state.
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A Utilization Certificate (UC) was submitted by nine state-run universities amounting upto only Rs. 10.45 crores to UGC. Rs. 36.10 crore UC, on the other hand, has been reported by all old and new varsities of the state as state funds.
Thus, pending UCs of Rs. 49.78 crore and Rs. 60.77 crore for UGC and state funds respectively, have to be submitted by the universities.
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The Vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University mentioned that it had been sanctioned grants worth Rs. 11.42 crore and had released Rs. 9.94 crore. Basis that, they have submitted the UC for Rs. 7.12 crore and for the rest, work is in progress. They will be able to hand over the completion certificate by the end of the XIIth financial plan year.
According to other sources, old universities are the defaulters in terms of submitting the UC. The reason behind that could be that these varsities also receive grants from other sources apart from the state plan funds for infrastructure. Hence, they do not take keen interest in completing the projects as planned. Therefore, majority defaulters are the already established universities in comparison to the new ones who are working towards building new campuses. It can be concluded that the when the end of the audit nears, the utilised funds will further have to be reallocated.