Education minister PK Shahi lays the foundation of AN College’s technical block on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Feb. 6: Education minister P.K. Shahi today again took a dig at Raj Bhavan, saying the state government’s efforts to streamline the functioning of universities had been thwarted by the whimsical style of functioning of vice-chancellors.

“The state government intended to appoint able and academically sound persons as vice-chancellors but Raj Bhavan played spoilsport,” Shahi said at AN College. The minister has been taking potshots at the governor — the chancellor of all state universities — who is yet to give his sanction to the Patna University (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and Bihar State Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2011.

“When people approach us with their problems related to universities, we ask them to approach Raj Bhavan to settle their cases. But the people say they elected us, and not the chancellor, and it is the government’s duty to listen to their problems,” Shahi said.

The minister said the government is accused of interfering in the autonomy of the universities if it tries to help out. “Universities should have autonomy but Raj Bhavan should concentrate on how to improve academic excellence,” he said.

Without naming anyone, the minister said persons with a not-so-clean image were being asked to run universities. “There should be transparency in the appointment of VCs,” he added.

Shahi was speaking at the foundation lying ceremony of a technical block at AN College.

“Despite the state government spending a huge amount of money in higher education, we are not getting the desired results. Youths from the state are still going in large numbers to other states for pursuing higher studies,” he said.

The minister said that in the current financial year, the government has so far spent Rs 2,400 crore on higher education, mainly in universities, and in March, there will be a greater flow of funds from the state to the universities. “The government spends up to Rs 60,000-65,000 per college student in a year but despite spending such a huge amount there is no desired results,” Shahi said.

Apart from lagging behind in infrastructure, the institutions are dogged by irregular academic sessions and lack of quality teachers. “There are many universities in the state which don’t have any record about the expenditure and some universities don’t even have a cashbook,” he said.