SPPU senate passes budget worth Rs 540cr

Pune: The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) senate meeting for the budget session was adjourned post-lunch after senate members demanded that the session be held offline to discuss budgetary provisions and other matters. The budget estimate for SPPU passed for the year 2021-22 is over Rs 540 crore.

Vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar appealed to members to pass the budget proposal for technical reasons. The budget of the university needs to be passed before March 31 of every year. Karmalkar also promised the senate members that he would hold the meeting again within a month in an offline manner. During the offline meeting, various points in the budget, policy decisions and grievances of senate members will be discussed.

Senate members raised issues related to examination and demanded the need to relook the allocation of budgetary funds. Senate member Amit Patil said, “There have been reports about allocation of funds to individual SPPU officials and this needs to be investigated. To this end, I recommend that a committee must be formed by the university. However, the members constituting the committee must not be people working under the officials being investigated nor must they be working together. Hence, I call for an independent group of people to look into the matter.”

Santosh Dhore, another senate member, raised questions on the capacity of SPPU EduTech Foundation to conduct university examinations online and demanded that no delay be allowed in the scheduled examination.

Giving a gist of what the university has done and what it plans to do, Karmalkar in his inaugural address said, “We have made over 2,500 online videos and other e-learning material during the pandemic... We were able to provide some high-end instruments for testing and sampling to Serum Institute, which not only helped us contribute to the social good but also helped in generating revenue of Rs 60-65 lakh. In the coming years, SPPU plans to publish many rare books. Similarly, a biography of MR Jayakar, the first vice-chancellor of SPPU, will also be published.”