Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University

Muzaffarpur, Jan. 4: Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University is gearing up for the January 16 senate meeting to finalise the institute’s budget for the next fiscal.

The meeting, sources said, could be a heated affair as officials would discuss the 2012-2013 budget and also the reasons leading to a month’s delay in organising the meet.

University officials, partic-ularly of the budget and accounts section, are working overtime to prepare a comprehensive annual budget.

The university is likely to prepare a budget of Rs 600 crore for this academic year, a hike of Rs 35 crore from last year’s allocation.

The university had furnished the state government a budgetary allocation of Rs 565 crore last year. Vice-chancellor (VC) Bimal Prasad said this year, the revised payscale of University Grants Commission has increased the annual allocation by Rs 35 crore.

On the other hand, the senators of the university are fuming over the delay in conducting the senate meeting. Sources said the university was “reluctant” to organise the meeting on January 16.

Senator Arun Kumar Singh accused the VC of conducting the meeting after the varsity received repeated reminders from the government to furnish the annual budget for 2012-2013.

The university is empowered to call at least one or two senate meetings a year. However, the university called the meeting a month behind the scheduled time.

Another senator, Mohammad Tauquir Alam, said: “The university has proved that it is helpless in setting straight the academic and administrative work. The university is organising the meeting after the government intervened. It reprimanded the university to send the annual budget for 2012-2013, else it threatened to stop the annual grant. Only then the officials of the university woke up and expedited the work to prepare the budget.”

He added: “The state government would only approve the annual budget if it is duly passed by the university senate. The university realised the need to call the meeting.”

The VC said the university would table the budget and also a detailed report of the affiliation committee to grant affiliation to 37 colleges.

On the same day, issues like the proposed inspection of premier colleges by National Accreditation and Assessment Council and necessary approval of the senate on the semester system would be discussed. The VC said the financial committee would meet on January 7 to pass the budgetary allocation before the senate meets on January 16.