Battling fin crunch, aided colleges in city seek funds

Lucknow: At a time when political parties are showering promises this election season, teachers, and staff of 20 govt-aided colleges in Lucknow are seeking their attention towards financial crisis they have been facing over the years.
They claim that they don’t have money to carry out basic work like repair of classrooms, construction of girls' toilets, pay taxes etc and urge the Centre to come up with some scheme to support them financially.

While Lucknow University will get Rs 100 crore for development under the PM Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, the state of its associated aided colleges continues to be grim. Of the 20 such colleges, most are over 50-year-old and don't get any grants from the state. The only source of income is course fee of which a major part — ‘tuition fee’ — goes to the govt in return of which the teachers get their salaries. The second source of income is examination fees, but this goes to LU for conducting examinations.
The remaining revenue is generated through fees charged for library, development and miscellaneous. However, the amount is meagre.
Further, the state govt gives grants to govt colleges, but not to the aided ones. Earlier colleges used to get grants from the University Grants Commission (UGC) which has been discontinued. “Colleges don’t get examination and tuition fees which are a major portion in a student’s fees. What we get is Rs 100 as game fees, Rs 100 for the library and e-library, a student welfare fund of Rs 100, a cultural activities fee of Rs 50 and development fees of Rs 1,000 which is too little to meet all expenses,” said Manish Hindvi, office secretary of the Federation of UP University College Teachers Association. LU has as many as 561 affiliated colleges in Rae Barelli, Hardoi, Sitapur, and Lakhimpur Kheri and Lucknow of which 14 are govt colleges, 33 govt-aided and 514 private colleges.
In Lucknow, there are 187 colleges of which four are govt, 20 aided while 163 private colleges. “LU govt colleges are getting grants under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan but the real struggle is for aided colleges like Jai Shri Narain PG College, Khun Khun Ji PG, and AP Sen Memorial Girls College which are around 100-year-old,” said general secretary of LU Associated College Teachers Association Anshu Kedia.
She said aided colleges can’t increase fees as there is a limit set by the govt while its examination fees goes to LU.
“Under ‘student funds’ the aided colleges have some money, but they can't spend it until the education directorate converts them for other usages. The biggest pressure is maintenance and house tax. We somehow arranged money to pay house tax of our college but got a shocker when we received a notice of Rs 10 lakh as interest for pending dues,” she said.
“There is a GO in secondary education department in which schools can undertake some commercial activities on the institute’s land to raise funds. A similar GO will help to a certain extent,” she added. LUACTA president Manoj Pandey said: “Aided colleges carry 90% of student load hence it's the responsibility of the govt to help them financially. Several colleges can't go for national level rankings as they don't even have money to pay fees to apply.”
LU ex-VC Prof Roop Rekha Verma said: “Govt should stop unnecessary expenditures and divert funds for welfare of students. Universities that have A++ grades should divert funds to colleges.”