Audit college funds, change corrupt heads
Higher Education Minister Dr Pradeep Panigrahi has spelt out his priorities for improving standard of higher education in the State which has nosedived to a great extent for various reasons.
He told to sort out the pending court cases of about 20,000 in number within two months through departmental Adalats; appointing regular Principals and doing away with the In-Charge (IC) system; filling up over 2,000 posts of lecturers lying vacant both in the Government and aided colleges, besides bringing in reforms in the examination pattern and introduction of new and suitable syllabus among others.
But, nowhere has he told about scarping the Block Grant (BG) system and introduction of grant-in-aid (GIA), which is a long standing demand of the largest section of teaching community in the State and a root cause of their resentment and repeated strike.
The Block Grant was introduced by the BJD Government and is given at an abysmally low rate not equaling the salary of a college teacher with that of a peon on regular Government job. The full Block Grant, so far, has been less than `15,000 for the 662 category of college teachers, while it is a bit more in case of the 488 category college teachers. What is agonising is the format in which the grant is given.
It is given as lump sum twice or thrice in a year or as and when an allocation is made by the Finance Department. The money is transferred to the account of the Principal –cum-Secretary of the 662 category colleges and I-C Principals of the 488 category colleges. As a result, the employees get their grant quite irregularly i.e. twice or thrice in a year. Again, when it is paid, not all the arrears are cleared.
Supposing there is an arrear of about six months to be cleared, the Government would merely clear of 2-3 months. It is even not told to the colleges what months the salary is meant for.
These teachers have no service book. They cannot claim DA and other fringe benefits as enjoyed by the Government employees. The grant, therefore, looks like Government making some charity donations without truly associated with the hardship and miseries of the beneficiaries.
The Government through the Block Grant is doing more harm than good to the education system of the State, opined many teacher leaders here. The Block Grant is like sprinkling water on the face of a person suffering from malnutrition who keeps on losing sense and regaining it.
Since the salary is too less, it does not help meeting any major expenses. Besides, it amounts denigration of status and loss of personality, they said. Since the staff members are always uncertain about their job and salary, they lose interest in work and prepare for agitation, they added, pointing out that the Block Grant system, therefore, causes all disturbances among the largest chunk of teachers and employees in the department and impedes quality education.
Apart from giving grant in the manner doling R`1- a –kg-rice to the BPl families, the Government seems disowning any responsibility to restore healthy administration in the colleges.
First of all, these colleges are now under the administration of the IC Principals and the local Sub Collectors or ADMs. Since the latter are otherwise occupied in a lot of works, they have little time to look after the daily running of the institutions. Hence, the IC Principals are the de facto rulers.
But considering their low payment, these authorities are now involved in rampant irregularities of the funds of the institutions. Without regular audit by the Government, they manage to use the college fund as their personal property and hence, resort to much financial bungling. Since the Government has not fixed the fees of admission and readmission etc, these authorities are fixing the fees on their own.
Situation has now come to such a pass that they are now running the colleges as their profit-making private autonomous institutions and fleecing the students and their guardians.
“By serving in an institution for over 20 years, many staff members have grown lethargic and finding everything to be of a run-of –the-mill affairs. Hence, the Government must consider transferring them so as to infuse fresh blood.
Most importantly, the Government should either create a cadre of Principals on the basis of their experience and education from Government and 488 category colleges and deploy them in the 662 category colleges or introduce rotation system in the appointment of Principals in the 662 category of colleges so that no single person should consider the college as his or her fiefdom and do rampant corruption without bar,” said a retired reader here.