The University of Madras presented a deficit budget for 2017-18 at its Senate meeting on Saturday.
The Registrar (in-charge) S. Karunanidhi presided over the meeting, which was attended by Ajeet Prasad Jain, a member of the convenor committee currently governing the university. Around 75 of the 134 members attended, sources said.
Chairing the session, K. Jothi Sivagnanam of the Department of Economics said the year ended with a deficit of ₹58.50 crore due to a delay in the receipt of grant from the government. In 2014-15, the university recorded a deficit of ₹12.94 crore. This academic year, the university expects ₹166.59 crore from receipts as against ₹227.33 crore under the revised estimate for last year. The receipts were lower in 2014-15 (₹145.66 crore) and 2015-16 (₹109.12 crore).
Though Mr. Sivagnanam maintained that there was only a slender decrease in allocation under the major heads, department heads were upset with the allocations. They were concerned about the increased maintenance costs for equipment.
Mr. Sivagnanam said, “We have got salary grants only for the financial year 2013-14. We are yet to get grants for 2014-15 and 2015-16.” He assured the professors their concerns would be addressed in the revised estimate.
Plea to convert school
T. Nagar MLA B. Satyanarayana, who was present, requested the University to convert a government school in Ashok Nagar into a college. Once the University completed the inspection, he said he would ensure the approval was received from the school and college education departments for the premises.
Mr. Sivagnanam said nine colleges were to be affiliated this year. But Mr. Satyanarayana said they were private colleges to which the university official replied that it was left to the government to start a college and the university merely granted affiliation.
Syndicate member S.S. Sundaram and senate member J. Gandhirajan called for the reconstitution of the Vice Chancellor search committee, as the current committee had been unable to come up with a suitable candidate.
Mr. Sivagnanam replied that in the syndicate meeting held recently, the higher education secretary and head of convenor committee Sunil Paliwal had said the university would have a V-C within a few weeks.
The university had received ₹5.46 crore as research grants for various projects, and under the University with Potential for Excellence scheme, the UGC had granted ₹25 crore for implementing 49 research projects.