Delhi: After 10-year political deadlock, 12 DU colleges get funds

Locked in a continuous battle with the Delhi government for a decade, the 12 Delhi University (DU) colleges, fully funded by the state government, now hope to breathe easy after the education minister’s announcement that Rs 417 crore of grants had been released for these colleges, enabling them to pay salaries of teachers.

AAP govt-DU tussle

After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power, there was a persistent tussle between the Delhi government and DU over the release of grants. While these colleges are affiliated with DU, they rely entirely on the Delhi government for financial support.

The AAP government repeatedly accused the DU colleges of financial mismanagement and lack of accountability, and often delayed or withheld grants to them. It demanded audits, sought control over their governing bodies, and pushed for greater oversight of fund usage.

In 2017, then Education Minister Manish Sisodia directed the Director of Higher Education to stop funds to all Delhi government-funded colleges after they refused to appoint full governing bodies (GB).

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Since there are Delhi government nominees on the GB too, this became a major bone of contention between the colleges and the Delhi government. The situation was exacerbated as there were different governments at the Centre (BJP) and Delhi (AAP).

DU, on its part, resisted what it saw as attempts to cede administrative control to the Delhi government, arguing that it would undermine the university’s autonomy. Therefore, for years altogether, these colleges operated with truncated GBs and repeatedly found themselves in a situation where teachers’ salaries were delayed by months due to non-payment of grants by the Delhi government.

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What Education Minister said

College principals of the 12 DU colleges are hopeful that this deadlock, which has continued for 10 years, will now be over. On Wednesday (June 4), Education Minister Ashish Sood said, “The Delhi government has released Rs 275 crore as the first installment of funding to 12 fully state-funded Delhi University colleges, ensuring timely salaries and operational support. The previous government did not release grants to DU where students from middle-class families study. But we released the money on April 1.”

First installment received

Principals said they had all received the first instalment. “We have received the first instalment of the first quarterly grant on May 1 already, much before the announcement. This will be used to pay salaries for teachers and other things. For the (upcoming) fourth year, we will not use these funds,” said Poonam Verma, Principal of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies.

Hem Chand Jain, Principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, said he had received the grants for the first quarter too, and was hopeful of getting the second instalment too.

“That has also been initiated so we hope to get it by the end of this month. In the last 10 years, we were in a real soup. Now we’re stepping out of it. Last year Rekha ji (the Chief Minister) gave Rs 4.7 crore additional which helped our situation,” said Jain.

“As of now they have sanctioned the budget estimate, we are hopeful that in the revised estimate which will be sanctioned around December, they will cover our deficit of the last 15 years,” he added.

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College principals upbeat

Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari, Principal of Maharaja Agrasen College, also echoed the same. “Last month, all the principals had a meeting with the Chief Minister, the education minister, the finance secretary, and the education secretary, and it was decided that this issue would be sorted out as a priority and all the grants would be released. We are hopeful that our problems of the last 10 years will be sorted out soon. In the last five years, teachers have got delayed salaries after six months, and no salary during Diwali,” he said.

Tiwari said colleges had not been getting funds for projects either. “Now we have been asked by the government to submit our proposals by June so that they can go through them and approve them. We are also hopeful that the issue of appointments on posts that had been halted in these colleges will also be resolved soon,” he said.