Baishali Mukherjee

Jadavpur University has been receiving a lot of bad press in recent times, including a student’s death due to ragging at this university hostel. Moreover, the Chancellor, who is also the Governor, has not attended the university’s convocation for the past two years. Now, teachers, staff, and officers at Jadavpur University are alleging that they have not received their salaries and pensions for the month of December. It is being claimed that the state government has not provided the funds and due to the non-payment, the university had to arrange the full salary and pension payments on its own.

On January 8, the university’s teachers’ association (JUTA) raised the issue saying, the university spent Rs 34.97 crore from its coffers for “non-salary maintenance-related expenses” in the 2023-24 financial year. JUTA’s General Secretary, Parthapratim Roy, said, “Jadavpur University is already facing severe financial constraints, and on top of that, the university has not received its rightful dues from the state government.” “JU had to decide on a 40 percent cut in expenditures for laboratory teaching and other allied works last year. The financial crunch has been continuing for several years and the finance and executive committees are yet to act on it despite knowing the facts,” he added.

Moreover, fearing that the university may need to borrow funds from financial institutions if the crisis persists, the institute had already spent several crores from its own reserves for infrastructure development in five engineering departments. JUTA also claimed that despite the university’s reputation as a prestigious institution known across the country for its groundbreaking contributions to education and advanced research, the West Bengal higher education department has not provided any assistance. Additionally, JUTA demanded immediate recruitment for posts of registrar, deputy registrar, finance officer and librarian at the university.

In this context it is pertinent to note that with the centre discontinuing grants from 2017, UGC discontinuing the grant of about Rs.4 crore a year under the Five Year Plan and the state government either slashing its budget for the university or not paying the allotted amount since 2019, JU is facing a serious funds crunch. Many believe that both the governments are trying to push the university to raise its fees, which has remained unchanged for 22 years. Fee hike is difficult in JU as many bright but economically backward students get a chance to study in the institution because of its extremely low monthly fees, e.g. Rs.75 for arts, Rs.150 for science, and Rs.200 for engineering. The hostel fee has also remained at Rs.25 a month since 1970. Senior varsity members deplore that the lack of funding is a sign of the government’s retreat from providing free quality education for all, which in turn is threatening institutions like JU’s very position of pre-eminence in the field of public education. 

However, responding to the non-payment of December salary and pension funds, the Education Department said that the issue lies within Jadavpur University. A senior officer from the Higher Education Department explained that, according to regulations, a requisition must be submitted for salaries and pensions. However, the requisition made by Jadavpur University for December did not provide proper explanation for the funds requested under the “other expenses” category, which led to the delay. The Department also  assured that full amount will be disbursed to Jadavpur University in the coming days. Education Minister Bratya Basu said, “I am unaware of the matter. I will definitely look into it. I don’t think there will be any issues regarding this.”