University of Pune senate okays Rs382-crore budget

The University of Pune (UoP) senate on Sunday approved an annual budget of Rs382 crore with a deficit of Rs100 crore for the financial year 2011-12.

The director of board of colleges and university development, Vasudev Gade presented the budget before the senate in the presence of vice chancellor, Raghunath Shevgaonkar, who chaired the meeting.

In its budget, the UoP has made provision of Rs23.12 crore on student-centric programmes. The budgetary provision of Rs3 crore and Rs2.5 crore were for research scholarship for MPhil and PhD students and Krantijyoti Savitrimata Phule scholarship for girl students respectively.

The annual budget for the present fiscal 2010-11 was Rs309 crore.

Amounts of Rs7.3 crore and Rs1.57 crore were allocated for board of students welfare and hostels respectively. The International Students Centre will have a provision of Rs1.45 crore along with Rs50 lakh for a new building for foreign students.

A total of Rs5.67 crore was earmarked for Jaykar Library, out of which Rs2.44 crore and Rs2.3 crore will be spent on library maintenance and development respectively. Rs93 lakh will be spent on purchasing books.

The UoP, in its budget, made monetary provision of Rs5.85 crore for the technology department. The senate on Saturday took the decision of setting up the department, which will offer the students opportunities of interdisciplinary study and research in the field of technology. The education programmes will be conducted jointly by the department and the respective industries.

However, many senate members who moved cut motions on the draft budget critically analysed last year’s budgetary provisions and the lapse of funds under many heads.

Moving as many as 11 cut motions, senate member Gajanan Ekbote said, “Instead of the budgetary provision of Rs385 crore, it should be Rs300 crore as most of the funds allocated for various heads get lapsed.”

Criticising the unnecessary budgetary provisions on heads like examination department and virtual classrooms, Ekbote said, “The UoP for the financial year 2009-10 approved the budget of Rs337 crore with a deficit of Rs152 crore, but actually the university could manage to spend Rs162 crore and the remaining fund lapsed.”

“In the same way, for the current financial year, the UoP made provisions of Rs386 crore, but till November 30 last year it actually spent only Rs204 crore, so making an inflated budget is of no use,” he said.

Senate member, Santosh Dhore, moved a cut motion that the UoP should start a scholarship, named as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Vidyadhan for poor students from rural areas who take admission to professional courses.

Dhore said, “The budgetary allocation of Rs5 crore be made for the scholarship.” The UoP will pay the interest amount only if a student from a weaker section obtains an education loan for a professional course at the university.

Dhore moving another cut motion and said, “The budgetary allocation for earn-and-learn scheme of the board of students welfare should be increased from Rs5 crore to Rs7.5 crore and the present wage rate of Rs20 per hour be made Rs40 per hour.”

Batting for the School of Distance Education, Nandkumar Nikam told the senate, “The provision of Rs1 lakh be increased to Rs20 lakh, keeping in mind the burden of conducting external examinations on the UoP affiliated colleges.”

He said the provision of Rs5 lakh each for purchasing land for sub-centres at Ahmednagar and Nashik is meagre and should be increased to Rs2 crore each.

The senate decided to discuss two cut motions of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Vidyadhan Scholarship by Dhore and Khashaba Jadhav Sports Scholarship for bright sportspersons moved by Dadabhau Shinalkar, in the upcoming meeting of the management council.

The senate approved the increase of the budgetary allocation for earn-and-learn scheme of the board of students welfare from Rs5 crore to Rs7.5 crore.