Chandigarh
(I-Haryana News): The Kurukshetra University which was established in
1956 to encourage the higher education and research, especially in
Sanskrit, Prakrit and modern Indian languages has seems that it is now
encouraging research journalists to investigate into its unfairness and
corrupt working practices.
Intelligent
Haryana News Research Team after finalizing the field report and
information received under Right to Information Act on January 11, 2013,
the exact day when in 1957 Dr.Rajendra Prasad, the first President of
the India had laid foundation stone of university, decided to publish
research report on working of Haryana’s first university.
The
university authorities are bound to work as per the Kurukshetra
University Act, 1986 but IHN investigation revealed that this education
throne of the state whose government claims itself as number one state
of India is openly defying the statute under which it was established,
following are the issues where Kurukshetra University failed to act as
per act.
No Long Term Perspective Plan for Development
As
per section 13 of the Kurukshetra University Act, 1986 The University
should have prepared a long-term Perspective Plan outlining the
year-wise developmental activities to be carried out by it.
Whereas,
the university did not act as per section 13 of the Kurukshetra
University Act, 1986 and not prepared its long-term Perspective Plan
yet.
Defunct Academic Planning Board Since 2000
Further,
Section 13 of the Kurukshetra University Act, 1986 provided that the
University would constitute an Academic Planning Board. The Board was to
advice on planning and development of the University, particularly in
respect of the standards of education and
research.
But,
IHN investigation established that Academic Planning Board was last
constituted in 1998 and last met in September, 2000 and thereafter the
Academic Planning Board remained non-functional till date.
On
above mentioned observations Registrar, Kurukshetra University
responded ithat University would prepare a five-year Perspective Plan
and a vision document for proper implementation of the programmes and
activities but till date anything happened in this regard.
Also
on non-functioning of Academic Planning Board, the university answered
that it was not because the Chancellor still has to nominate seven
members of the Board as per Statutes.
University Failed to Prepare its Annual Accounts and Balance Sheets for last 27 Years
Section
26(1) of the Kurukshetra University Act 1986 provides that the
University should prepare Annual Accounts and Balance Sheets under the
directions of the Executive Council every year, whereas university was
preparing only Income and Expenditure Accounts but was not preparing
Balance Sheets which is clearly violations of the act.
In
response this statute contrary act by university, it Registrar stated
that prior to April 2009, it was exempted from preparing Balance Sheets
by the Director, Higher Education and the Balance Sheets for the years
2009-10 and 2010-11 were under finalization, on further investigation it
was established that exemption from preparing Balance Sheets is not
sustainable because the Director, Higher Education was not competent to
give exemption from preparing Balance Sheets as the requirement was
provided for in the Kurukshetra University Act. Only the legislature was
competent to give exemption through amendment of the Act.
In
the absence of Balance Sheets, the state of affairs like university
assets, liabilities, loans and advances, cumulative excess of income
over expenditure or vice-versa could not be investigated thoroughly.
A
case could throw light on fraud prone financial management of
university where an analysis of the bank reconciliation statement of
bank account number 1201 of the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and
50221 of the State Bank of India (SBI) were made which revealed that
Income of Rs 5.026 crore shown as credited in the OBC account as per the
books of the University but was not credited by the bank in this
account.
Also
the closing balances of the expenditure register were carried forward
without ascertaining that the amounts debited by banks were as per the
books of accounts of the University. Scrutiny of the bank reconciliation
statements of the SBI account revealed that debits amounting to Rs 153.40 crore pertaining to the period April 2004 to October 2009 remained non-reconciled.
These
discrepancies indicated that the accounting system of receipts and
payments was not foolproof and that the system was prone to financial
irregularities, which could remain undetected due to non-reconciliation.
False Submission of Grant Utilization Certificate to IGNOU by Kurukshetra University
The
University authorities did not stop here further submitted false fund
utilization certificate and spent money else, which is a criminal act
under Indian Penal code and punishable with provisions of jailed terms
for such act.
The
Director, Distance Education of the University submitted a proposal for
financial assistance of Rs 81.70 lakh to the Director, Distance
Education Council, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for
starting a Post-M.Sc Diploma in Bio-informatics and a PG Diploma in
Bio-Informatics from 2006-07.
In
June 2006 IGNOU provided Rs 40 lakh for starting these courses and in
April 2008 University submitted a utilization certificate (UC) for Rs
26.26 lakh and refunded (September 2007) the balance amount of Rs 13.74
lakh to IGNOU.
However, Investigation revealed that the University had not started these new courses as yet but had
spent Rs 26.26 lakh on the ongoing courses. Thus, the utilization
certificate submitted to IGNOU was false as the expenditure had not been
incurred for the purpose for which the funds were provided, as these
new courses had not started, as a result of which the students were
deprived of the benefit of these courses.
While
answering to False Utilization certificate issue the University stated
that the Distance Education Council, IGNOU did not raise any objection
on the UC. The reply is not convincing as the UC furnished by the
University did not indicate diversion of funds.
Non-utilization of the Amalgamated Fund and Non-recovery of Youth Welfare and Cultural Fees
As
per Amalgamated Fund Rules Amounts collected from students for the same
were to be spent for the benefit of students on specified items such as
purchase of sports material, maintenance of playgrounds and swimming
pools, amenities for NCC cadets and expenditure in connection with trips
to places of historical, geographical, scientific or other educational
interests, extra-curricular activities of the students, travelling
allowances to sports teams, organization of annual sports meets, etc
whereas the University Institute of Engineering and Technology collected
funds amounting to Rs 61.41 lakh for this purpose during 2004 to 2011.
However,
only Rs 10.94 lakh was spent and Rs 50.57 lakh was lying unspent (March
2011). It was observed that the University had not prepared any plan to
provide these facilities to students, as a result of which, the funds
remained unutilized and the students remained deprived of these
facilities, even after contributing to the fund.
Similarly,
the colleges were required to collect Youth Welfare and Cultural fees
at the rate Rs 40 per student per annum, of which Rs 30 was to be sent
to the department of Youth and Cultural Affairs of the University and Rs
10 was to be retained by the colleges. The technical institutions
including B.Ed colleges were required to collect the fees at the rate Rs
500 per student per annum, of which Rs 375 was to be sent to the
University and ` 125 was to be retained by the college concerned. These
funds were to be utilized for organizing cultural festivals and youth
festivals.
Investigation
revealed that 94 colleges, institutions and technical institutions had
not deposited youth welfare and cultural fees of Rs 66.74 lakh collected
from the students with the University as of March 2011.
Further,
the Youth Welfare and Cultural Department of the University did not
have the details of the number of students enrolled in different years
in 52 colleges. In the absence of the number of students, the quantum of
outstanding youth and cultural fees of these colleges could not be
worked out.
In
response to this the Registrar of the University stated that Principals
of the colleges have been requested to deposit the outstanding youth
welfare fees and work out the actual number of students of 52 colleges
but could not assured stern actions against defaulters.
Non-implementation of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Other Educational Institutes
One
of the objectives of the University was to coordinate with educational
and other institutions in India and abroad having similar objectives.
The
University signed 12 MOUs with educational and other institutions in
India and abroad during 2007-11. Out of these, only seven MOUs were put
into operation. No action was taken to put into operation the remaining
five MOUs.
While
answering to non implementation of MoUs the Chairman of the University
School of Management stated (May 2011) that ex-facto sanction of
Government of India for starting an MBA (International) course in
collaboration with the University of Canada, West Vancouver and
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada had been received but the University
is in a process of starting the course.
The
Registrar of the University replied that implementation of the MOUs
depended on the interest taken by the other concerned parties and that
efforts would be made to revitalize these MOUs.
Following are the institutes with them MoUs were signed but not implemented till date.
1. University of Gambia Kanifing Serrekunda,
2. University of Canada ,West Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada,
3. Vel-Tech DR R R and Doctor Senior Technical University (VTU), Chennai,
4. Department of Science and Technology GOI, New Delhi
5. American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi.
University does not follow the AICTE norms for infrastructure in Instructional Area
As
per AICTE norms, the sizes of instructional areas for classrooms,
laboratories/workshops and libraries/reading rooms should be 66, 200 and
400 sq m respectively.
It
was found that in UIET, the actual sizes of classrooms, laboratories
and the library/reading room were 57.01, 57.81 and 184.32 sq m
respectively. Thus, the students were forced to work in a congested
environment.
The
Registrar of the University replied that the norms of AICTE came into
force in UIET in the year 2010 and the construction of its building had
been planned in the year 2003. The reply is not acceptable as the AICTE
Act came into force in 1987 and the sizes of classrooms,
laboratories/workshops, etc. should have been adhered to the norms of
AICTE.
Inadequate Hostel Accommodation
Hostel
accommodation was provided to the campus students of the University.
Investigation showed that there was overcrowding in the hostels from
2006-07 to 2009-10, as the average number of students was far in excess
of the intake capacity as detailed below:
It
would be seen from the above that against the intake capacity of 5,005
students, the actual occupancy was 5,856. Overcrowding of hostels was
not conducive for study and hygienic living. Further, the space for the
intake capacity of 97 beds had been used for office work, which also
added to the overcrowding.
The
Registrar of the University replied that more hostels with capacity of
accommodating 1,200 students were under construction and on completion
of these, more students could be accommodated.
Book Bank not Established for Poor Students
Grants
for creation of a Book Bank are provided by UGC for helping needy and
poor students. It was, however, noticed that no Book Bank had been
established in the libraries of the University. Further, no grant was
sought for the purpose from UGC during 2006-11.
Research Activities in Disarray
The
Government, national and international agencies sponsor research
projects in the University and provide necessary financial support for
successful completion of the projects.
The
details Investigation of all the 32 Government sponsored research
projects it was established that seen only 12 were completed that too
after the delays of one to 16 months.
Similarly,
22 UGC sponsored research projects involving an expenditure of Rs 1.37
crore were undertaken during 2006-11. Out of these, 14 projects were due
for completion but only five projects were completed by June 2011.
Three of these were completed after a delay of six to 14 months.
Delay in submission of theses
As
per the ordinance regarding the Doctorate of Philosophy of the
University, the normal duration of a Ph.D is four years for full time
research scholars (RS) and five years for part-time scholars. But
investigation confirmed that submission of theses was dismal in the
Commerce stream where not a single research scholar submitted his/her
theses on time. In other departments also, the percentage of theses
submitted within the stipulated period ranged between 18 and 66 per
cent. Delayed submission of theses put a burden on the existing
infrastructure.
Last
not the least the above mentioned facts confirmed that the Kurukshetra
University is not fair in its working and its management to achieve the
objectives and activities mentioned in its the Kurukshetra University
Act, 1986, if the institution whose prime duty is to teach future
generation of India about values and innovation for development of
society is indulging in corrupt practices and defying the established
law responsible for its existence then what could we expect from the
students who are learning in this educational institute of number one
Haryana( As claimed By Hooda Government)
Dinesh Singh Rawat Says:
It is a serious anti nation act by national education planners and mangers because education institutes should be responsible and above any doubts as they are shaping the future of India.
The University in question should try to clean its working ASAP , It my only request to them in national interest.
