The Himachal Pradesh state
secretariat of the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM), has strongly condemned the state government
for starving the three universities from their genuine grants which they are
supposed to get. The government has instead asked the respective universities
to generate their resource which is beyond their scope. The Himachal Pradesh University
gets an annual grant of Rs 69 crores whereas the total expenditure is more than
Rs 90 crores. Similarly the Agriculture University Palampur gets an annual
grant of Rs 60 crores whereas its total expenditure is over Rs 109 crores. The
Nauni University too presents the same precarious condition where the
university has a deficit of over Rs 40 crores. The Nauni university is getting
an annual grant of Rs 48 crores whereas the expenditure is over 84 crores , if
the research component is also put into consideration then their expenditure is
more than Rs 120 crores which they manage from certain central grants. The
party has asked the government to stop singing its rhetoric of its commitment
towards higher education whereas it cannot even provide Rs 300 crores to these
three premier universities ; the only three in the government sector.
The party has stated, this has resulted in not paying the salaries to its
faculty, staff on time and in Palampur University its been more than 3 months
that the staff have been paid their salaries. The dues of the community serving
these universities have galloped into several scores of crores which keep on
multiplying. The pensions of the teaching faculty , other staff keeps on
lingering. Their dues have piled up. And it is not in one but all the three
universities that the condition has worsened.
The government bent to implement
the neo liberal policies, instead of adequately funding these important
universities has asked them to follow the agenda of 'creating their own
resources', which is nothing but phenomenal increase in fees (like the recent
fee hike in HPU which is over 2000%), commercialising education whereby
bringing in payment seats and charging brobdingnagian high for such seats. For
a MSc in Bio technology a student lands up paying more than Rs 10 lacs .
Similarly for other courses like MBA, MCA, MTA in HPU and MSc in Horticulture
and Plant Pathology etc the students are either forced to pay a heavy amount for so called 'subsidised seats' or pay exorbitant under
the payment seats. This the party has
stated, has resulted into low research for want of funds and heeding to the
interests of the big corporate houses who through various funding direct the
research for their interest.
The party has further stated, all
these three universities have an important role in the growth of the state not
just in its Gross state domestic product (GSDP), be it agriculture,
horticulture or services sector but also in producing the best of academicians
in the state. Their output is high and if the state statistics is a pointer
then more than 64% people thriving on agriculture itself defines the importance
of these universities which the government is bent on stifling.
The Party has stated, the government must close down HPTU and the
affiliation fees collected from there should be pooled into HPU. There is not
need for just a affiliating university. The CPIM has asked the government to immediately reverse
this trend and provide adequate help to these universities.
Tikender Singh Panwar
Member State secretariat
