Fund crunch debilitating Dibrugarh University

DIBRUGARH, January 18: It is ungratifying to note that at the Dibrugarh University (DU), teachers, employees and officers take turns to resort to an agitation, in support of their various demands. This spate of agitation has adversely affected academics, resulting in poor academic performance and an overall inorderliness at the sprawling campus. Since the seventh of the current month, the employees of the institution were on a strike, which was called off on January 12, demanding payment of their dearness allowance arrears. The employees, who were on a picketing agitation, effectively paralysed all activities at the varsity. Classes could not be taken, while the DU Model School too faced the brunt of the agitation, as classes there too had to be abandoned. The arrears cropped up last year after the state government announced a hike in dearness allowance (DA) rates, from 22% to 32%. However, the state government has not released the necessary funds required to meet the additional financial drain on the varsity. To add to the confusion, the state government also declared that the arrear DA would not be paid wef 1-1-99, but only from October 2000. The accumulated arrears would be paid directly into the employees' GPF. Here arose a problem for the university employees. They are entitle to CPF (contributory provident fund), not GPF (general provident fund), and hence, the only way out is to pay out the university employees. To do this, the DU authorities need an amount of Rs 1.25 crore, which is simply not available. Talking to this correspondent, the DU register, Kandarpa Kumar Deka said the DU monthly salary bill works out to Rs 1 crore. Of this amount, the varsity receives Rs 80 lakh from the Assam government while the remainder amount is generated from internal resources (read: fees from students). Deka is in a dilemma now because he does not want to further burden the students with additional fees to meet expenses, while he can no longer afford to be at loggerheads with his employees too. "We have been relentlessly writing to the state government to increase financial inputs for DU, but we are not getting even an acknowledgment to our appeals," he said. The DUPGSU general secretary, Manoranjan Konwar put this very poignantly by saying that the officers, teachers and employees will receive their dues today or tomorrow, "but the losses we students suffer because of their strikes can never be compensated." It was with this interest of the students in mind that students, teachers and employees of the varsity held a joint meeting last Wednesday, to try bringing an end to the employees' agitation. The joint meeting decided to urge the DU authority for an adhoc payment of Rs 2000 each to all teachers, employees and officers before January 13, against the DA arrears. Another instalment of the arrear may be released before the close of the current fiscal, so that a congenial academic atmosphere is restored in the campus. However, the DU authority on January 12 decided to pay Rs 2500, following which the employees, in a goodwill gesture, called off their agitation. The DU has several other crippling financial burden which stares at its face each month. A leading publication distributor based in New Delhi is yet to receive its due of Rs 40 lakh, accrued from subscriptions to foreign journals by the DU library. Then, there is the monthly ASEB electricity bill of Rs 3.60 lakh, of which the major energy consumers are the teachers, who pay a piddly Rs 60 a month per quarter as energy charges. Sometime ago, the DU authority decided to install electricity meters at all the teachers' quarters, so that the teachers pay for the energy they consume. Some of the teacher pay for the energy they consume. Some of the teachers agreed, but a majority did not. At one of the subsequent Executive Council (EC) meetings of the DU, one of the teachers' representatives raised the issue and had the 'pay-by-consumption' whittled down. There are two teachers' representatives at the DU EC, Amarendra Nath Phukan and Homeswar Goswami. Thanks to them, the DU teachers today pay the old flat rate of Rs 60 per residential quarter per month as electricity charges. The rest of the energy charges are "subsidised" by the DU, under duress. It may be worth mentioning here that in the city, the DU campus has the most concentration of air conditioners, microwave ovens and room heaters, apart from other fancy energy guzzling gizmo. This is one loophole that needs to be plugged, say varsity watchers here. The spate of agitation at the varsity is also likely to affect the DU's overall ratings, as has been made compulsory by the UGC. Under the new scheme, the Bangalore-based National Accreditation and Certification Council (NACC) issues ratings to Indian universities, based on several parameters. The poorer the rating, the lesser the sops from the UGC. A very poor beginning for a premier university at the dawn of a new millennium!