Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur, has in a Facebook post said that the college is going through a “financial crisis” because of a dip in aid from the central and state governments. The college has appealed to its former students to step forward in this “grave hour of crisis”.
The appeal signed by principal Swami Mahaprajnandanda and secretary Swami Shastrajnananda says the reduction in non-salary grants has posed a challenge.
In the appeal posted late December, they have written the college is finding it difficult to cater to students from underprivileged backgrounds effectively because of financial distress.
The appeal addressed to former students says: “We want to inform you with a grave concern that the college all of a sudden is encountering a financial crisis. Apart from the salary grant for the teaching and non-teaching staff, other grants of the central and state government projects from which the college would benefit and would carry out academic development activities throughout the year.”
“These activities cannot be continued because of the financial crisis. The college has extended and expanded its academic activities over the past two decades.... We know that many of our bright former students are well-established in their own fields. In this grave hour of crisis, we appeal to you to come forward with financial assistance.”
A college official said the non-salary grants have stopped coming.
The academic activities that have been discontinued are workshops or seminars, annual purchase of library books and development of infrastructure.
“….the college still now continues to help in providing education to the poor but meritorious students. But we are encountering difficulty in discharging the responsibility in an effective manner because of the rising financial distress,” the post says.
The college has been reeling under financial crisis over the past two years.
“We are not sure to what extent we can continue this seva yajna as far as the economic assistance to the underprivileged is concerned,” then principal Swami Ekachittananda had said in his convocation address at the college in December 2021.
A college official said the crisis has aggravated following a substantial drop in assistance from central and state governments last year. “We need immediate assistance of about Rs7 crore,” he said.
The Telegraph reported on April 17, 2022, that RamakrishnaMission Residential College, Narendrapur, had requested contributions from alumni and others to raise Rs 6 crore because a number of edifices in the hostel were in pressing need of reconstruction and equipment for some of its laboratories need to be purchased.
Jadavpur University vice-chancellor SuranjanDas in late October last year wrote to a platform of former students that “government funding — state and central— is becoming extremely inadequate” for JU and appealed to them to “mobilise financial support” for the university to enable it to maintain and improve the infrastructure.
The appeal by Vidyamandira says the college wants to create a separate corpus for Swami Vivekananda ResearchCentre, for maintaining the equipment in the laboratory and buildings of Vidyamandira, for the reconstruction of the dining hall of Sree Bhavanand Vivek Bhavan and for construction of the fourth floor of the hostel of Vivek Bhavanand Vidyamandira College Annexe Building.
