Teachers of Jadavpur University have questioned junior Union education minister Sukanta Majumdar’s contention that the Bengal government’s refusal to provide a “matching grant” was the reason why JU missed out on the status of an Institute of Eminence (IoE), arguing that “matching grant was never a pre-condition in this scheme”.
The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) said in a letter to the minister on Tuesday: “....the issue of the matching grant was never a pre-condition in this scheme, which was added in a later stage after selection of successful institutions under IoE scheme.... It is surprising to note that Jadavpur University has been kept outside the purview of funding under the IoE scheme whereas (a private university) got selected under the scheme without any comparable conditions!”
JU was shortlisted for the scheme in 2018.
When BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya asked in the Rajya Sabha on March 12 why JU missed the IoE tag, Majumdar said: “Mamata Banerjee’s apathy killed Jadavpur University’s IoE dream. While the chief minister spends crores on freebies and PR gimmicks, Bengal’s top university was abandoned by her government.”
Majumdar, who is also the Bengal BJP president, told the Rajya Sabha that as the Mamata government had declined to give ₹2,000 crore out of the ₹3,299-crore grant under the IoE scheme, JU missed out on the status.
In a letter to the Bengal chief secretary on August 6, 2019, the Union education ministry referred to a ₹3,000-crore budget purportedly set by the university and said the Centre was ready to provide ₹1,000 crore and the remaining amount was to be shared by the state government.
JU has denied ever setting a ₹3,000-crore budget.
A JU teacher said the Centre was deviating from its initial offer by asking the state to spend more to get the status.
Partha Pratim Ray, the general secretary of the teachers’ association, said: “We wanted to inform the minister that what he was stating as a reason behind JU missing out on the status was not correct. According to the UGC guidelines, the scheme was meant for ₹1,000 crore for a period of five years and, accordingly, the university submitted a project proposal of ₹1,015 crore and was selected by the Empowered Expert Committee in the list of the top eight institutions.”
Ray added: “When the university scaled down the projected funding from ₹1,015 crore to ₹600 crore under a revised scheme in 2021 and stated that if the Centre provided ₹454 crore, the rest would be sourced by the university, that too was rejected by the
ministry.”
Calls and text messages to Majumdar failed to elicit a response.
The teachers said that being a teacher of Gour Banga University from Bengal, Majumdar must ensure the promotion of JU with “central funding”.
Metro reported on March 16 that JU would write to the education ministry to return 75 per cent of the ₹1 crore application fee the varsity gave the UGC in 2017 because of the eminence tag denial.
