The newly-covered colleges under the Government grant-in-aid policy are yet to be subjected to audit and financial scrutiny by the State Government, providing a leeway to many principals to resort to massive irregularities.
Further, the failure of the Government to fix a uniform fee structure for all colleges and set norms on financial power of the authorities has led to a chaotic situation with steep escalation in fees in the rural colleges and the authorities spending college money according to their whims and caprices. The wanton opportunities now available for corruption have spun many a rags-to-riches yarn.
The 662 category colleges which were given grant under the GIA police -2008 are a case in point, where massive irregularities and one-upmanship by the heads of the institutions are being allegedly reported. After the grant was given, the old management committees where the villagers had a dominant role ceased to exist and the institutions were governed under the principals-in-charges-cum secretaries under the supervision of the local sub collectors, who act as the presidents of the new governing bodies.
However, the sub collectors being saddled with several additional charges have hardly been able to control the affairs of the institutions and here do the principals, virtually unfettered, make the most of their freedom and power. With the president of the governing body relegated to the edge, these so-called heads have none to be accountable to and are using the college fund as their fiefdom. They are in a sense making law for them and recklessly spending college money, most often for their own benefit.
The worst sufferers are the poor villagers at the receiving end, apart from the innocent staff members of the institutions. It’s known to everybody that the poor villagers had set up these institutions of higher learning in their panchayat or block headquarters for availing college education for their wards with least expenditure.
However, now it has been found that ever since the colleges were given grant and the principals became the defacto be-all and end-all, the fees have been skyrocketing so much so that even the rural colleges have become costlier than the Government colleges.
In an era of inflation, when cost of every commodity has been rising fast, the rising cost of education in their locality is yet again a headache for the villagers.
The rural colleges have been caught by the bug of commercialization, thanks to the highhandedness of the heads. The unbridled power enjoyed by the heads and the very functioning of these institutions like private autonomous bodies completely out of the control of the Government are to be blamed for the situation to come to such a pass.
It’s also known that the grant provided to the staff members in the colleges is too scant. It is alleged that in several colleges the heads have formed coteries for running the administration and bungling the funds.
While a large section of staff members are kept on the margin, letting them languish in poverty and wretchedness, splinter groups in the colleges are relishing the cream, though the heads are always having a lion’s share.
“We demand Government auditing of the finances of the colleges since 2008 and a Vigilance enquiry into the irregularities in the institutions, besides a probe into the disproportionate assets of the heads,” said several villagers, who added that there should be regular monitoring of the affairs of the colleges and the functioning of the authorities by the Government agencies.
Will action against a few set the things in order and revive a healthy academic ambience in these institutionsIJ A veteran educationist has a different take on it. “First of all, the Government should provide appropriate grant instead of the current block grant to the teachers and employees in these institutions. Then, a cadre of principals should be prepared from the experienced teachers in the Government and old Government aided colleges and they should be deployed in the newly aided colleges to look after its administration and management. Timely auditing and fair budgeting should be taken up. Besides, transfer system should be in vogue in respect of the employees,” said a retired reader SN Das.