Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) M. Mallikarjun Kharge has taken exception to the delay in completing the Phase II works on the campus of the Central University of Karnataka at Kadaganchi village in Aland taluk of Kalaburagi district.
Mr. Kharge, accompanied by Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil, reviewed various development works taken up on the main campus of the university on Saturday.
He said that a delay of more than four years in completing Phase II and Phase II (A) was affecting the academic activities of the university.
Vice-Chancellor H.M. Maheshwaraiah said that the UGC had sanctioned 49 departments.
Only 21 were functioning and the university has proposed to start 23 departments by this year.
The new departments will shore up academic activities by admitting at least 5,000 to 6,000 students.
At present, CUK has around 2,000 on-campus people, including 1,580 students and teaching and non-teaching staff he added.
Mr. Kharge expressed his displeasure over the delay in filling up various vacant faculty positions in the last four years.
Of the 140 sanctioned teaching posts only 39 posts were filled, he added.
Prof. Maheshwaraiah said that 101 vacant posts will be filled up within two months.
Mr. Kharge directed the district administration to work out a permanent solution to meet the drinking water needs at the campus.
Deputy Commissioner Ujjwalkumar Ghosh said that the government has proposed to supply at least 3MLD of water from Bennethora dam and to club the supply of water to CUK with the proposed 24x7 drinking water supply scheme to Kalaburagi city. The work is on the pipeline and ₹24 crore has been estimated to draw the pipeline from Bennethora dam to CUK at Kadaganchi via Taj Sultanpur he added.
Prof. Maheshwaraiah made a presentation of Phase II and Phase II(A) works.
Mr. Kharge asked Dr. Patil to write to the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Human Resource Ministry that the university would not bear the fee reimbursement of the students pursuing courses in the State.
Either a student has to pay the fee or it has to be met by the respective State governments.
Prof. Maheshwaraiah said that the fee reimbursement and scholarship had imposed a financial burden of ₹40 lakh on the varsity.
