TISS Seeks HRD Ministry Help on Funding Tussle
Anubhuti Vishnoi
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New Delhi:
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OUT OF SYNC The institute, which is facing 46% cut in its non-salary grants, tells ministry there is a mismatch in the opening balance of accounts maintained by TISS and UGC
An escalating row with the higher education regulator has led the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to seek human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar's intervention in a 46% cut in its non-salary grants.The development comes barely a year after the Mumbai-based institute was forced to take bank loans to pay staff salaries while the government withheld grants.
The row over funding escalated so much that director of TISS wrote to the University Grants Commission in July , “There is no need to humiliate us. TISS is not asking any favours, we are only asking for rightful grants. And we have no one at the UGC to turn to demand to be treated in a dignified manner.“
At the heart of the row, officials said, is an “accounting problem“.While TISS claims that its opening balance on April 1 stood at about `14.36 crore, the UGC maintains it is not more than `2.48 lakh. In a communication sent to UGC on August 20, TISS termed UGC's assessment “incorrect“. It has put out statistics to claim that UGC failed to release the sanctioned amount to the institute, causing a shortfall of about `15.57 crore.
Professor S Parsuraman, director of TISS, told ET that the institute has written “several times“ to the UGC on the issue. While the HRD ministry has been supportive, “the UGC is not listening“, he said. The ministry, on its part, said the issue is being addressed.
“TISS has communicated to the ministry that opening balance of accounts of TISS does not match with that of accounts maintained in UGC regarding TISS. As a result TISS is receiving less grants from UGC,“ the ministry said in response to ET's queries. “There has been a meeting with TISS and UGC officials. UGC has called for more records from TISS to sort out the issue difference in OB. TISS is yet to provide the required records. It is purely an accountancy matter which is being reconciled between UGC and TISS,“ the ministry said.
The UGC did not respond to ET's queries despite repeated reminders.
In its August letter to the UGC, TISS said the non-plan grant approved by the UGC for 2015-16 was `4,515.02 lakh for meeting expenditure on salary of regular teaching and non-teaching staff. However, the UGC released only `3,212.75 lakh ultimately, a shortfall of `1, 188.76 lakh. For the new pension scheme, the UGC released `343 lakh against a sanctioned amount of `597.29 lakh, causing another shortfall of `229.81 lakh.
TISS described as a “double blow“ the “wholly incorrect and unwarranted deduction“ of `1556.56 lakh from the amount due to institute.
The row over funding escalated so much that director of TISS wrote to the University Grants Commission in July , “There is no need to humiliate us. TISS is not asking any favours, we are only asking for rightful grants. And we have no one at the UGC to turn to demand to be treated in a dignified manner.“
At the heart of the row, officials said, is an “accounting problem“.While TISS claims that its opening balance on April 1 stood at about `14.36 crore, the UGC maintains it is not more than `2.48 lakh. In a communication sent to UGC on August 20, TISS termed UGC's assessment “incorrect“. It has put out statistics to claim that UGC failed to release the sanctioned amount to the institute, causing a shortfall of about `15.57 crore.
Professor S Parsuraman, director of TISS, told ET that the institute has written “several times“ to the UGC on the issue. While the HRD ministry has been supportive, “the UGC is not listening“, he said. The ministry, on its part, said the issue is being addressed.
“TISS has communicated to the ministry that opening balance of accounts of TISS does not match with that of accounts maintained in UGC regarding TISS. As a result TISS is receiving less grants from UGC,“ the ministry said in response to ET's queries. “There has been a meeting with TISS and UGC officials. UGC has called for more records from TISS to sort out the issue difference in OB. TISS is yet to provide the required records. It is purely an accountancy matter which is being reconciled between UGC and TISS,“ the ministry said.
The UGC did not respond to ET's queries despite repeated reminders.
In its August letter to the UGC, TISS said the non-plan grant approved by the UGC for 2015-16 was `4,515.02 lakh for meeting expenditure on salary of regular teaching and non-teaching staff. However, the UGC released only `3,212.75 lakh ultimately, a shortfall of `1, 188.76 lakh. For the new pension scheme, the UGC released `343 lakh against a sanctioned amount of `597.29 lakh, causing another shortfall of `229.81 lakh.
TISS described as a “double blow“ the “wholly incorrect and unwarranted deduction“ of `1556.56 lakh from the amount due to institute.
Source: Economic Times, 12-09-2016
