‘White paper' on MKU finances sought

Senate members of the Madurai Kamaraj University on Friday demanded a ‘white paper' on the financial position of the university.

Citing delays in payment of arrears for a couple of staff members recently, P. Ilangovan, Senate member, moved an adjournment motion during the Senate meeting here and sought to know the actual financial position from the authorities. Initiating a discussion on the issue, he pointed out that two staff members of the university were not paid their arrears in a recent instance and ‘enormous delay' was there in payment. He expressed fear whether there was any impending financial crisis for the university.

Another member, S. Krishnaswamy, too wanted the varsity to present a white paper in the Senate on its financial status. The delay in settling remuneration for college teachers for paper valuation was raised by N. Periathambi of Government Arts College, Melur. “If the financial position is sound, then why there are delays in sanctioning the amount due to them,” he asked. Replying to the members' apprehensions, the Vice-Chancellor, R. Karpaga Kumaravel, clarified their doubts on the university's financial health.

“I strongly refute the charge. The delay in payment could have been due to some procedural lapse and it will be looked into. In fact, our university is giving the dues to retiring teaching/non-teaching staff in one cheque on the day of retirement itself which is not the case in many other universities.”

Agreeing to the demand, Dr. Karpaga Kumaravel said that he was ready to present a white paper on the varsity's financial position in the next meeting. “Everything is transparent…we have nothing to hide. As per the audit report, the financial position of the university is satisfactory.”

Giving particulars on Pension Corpus Fund, the Vice-Chancellor told the members that the corpus stood at Rs.242 crore and earned an interest of around Rs.18 crore a year. “The university has so far neither diverted the pension fund for any other purpose nor ever made any such attempt. Our university is taking care of the pensioners. Apart from the Pension Fund, MKU also has Rs.14 crore as general deposit,” he informed.

He said that the university administration was very much interested in building a healthy financial position. The issue ended when Syndicate member K. Muthuchelian assured the college teachers that steps would be taken to prevent delays in making payments.