No funding for DU colleges without governing body: Manish Sisodia

The Delhi government on Monday ordered a freeze on funding of 28 Delhi University colleges following the failure of these institutions in appointing governing bodies.

"I have ordered the Finance Department to stop funding for all 28 Delhi government-funded DU colleges, as they are not willing to have governing bodies for last 10 months," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

He also criticised the colleges saying that the government's money should not be spend when there is a chance of corruption. "I cannot allow unchecked corruption and irregularities to be sustained on Delhi government funds in the name of education," he added.

Some of these DU colleges are fully funded by the government while others are partially funded. Of the 28 colleges, 12 get 100 per cent while 16 get five per cent funding from Delhi government.

These colleges do not have full governing bodies since October 2016, when their term last ended.

This was the first time that the governing bodies were not given a three-month extension, which is usually given.

In February, DU had sent a panel of names to the government, following which the Education department had sent the governing body list in March to be approval by the varsity's Executive Council.

Sources in the Delhi government said that the Department approached the varsity nearly 12 times to form governing bodies.

"The sequence of events from September 2016 seems to indicate a deliberate and malafide attempt to delay formation of governing bodies," Sisodia said.

Earlier this month, the government had warned of stopping funds if the University failed to constitute governing bodies by the end of July.

Meanwhile, DU professors reacted strongly against the decision. Senior DU professor Dr Pankaj Garg said: "The colleges which are fully funded by the government will be closed down gradually if they do not get funds." He said that a committee of five people was formed to take decisions about the governing bodies, because DU was not agreeing with the government's recommendations.

"The committee is yet to file the recommendations and the government should not have taken the decision before that. The committee was formed to settle the issue and it was formed in the presence of the government representatives," Garg added.

Meanwhile, officials of the partially-funded colleges said that this decision will not affect them in near future. "It is not a good decision for the education system, but our colleges will not be affected," said PK Khurana, principal, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.