Stalin govt ‘bankrupting’ universities, claims BJP

Chennai, Nov 30 (IANS) Tamil Nadu BJP chief Nainar Nagenthran has accused the DMK government, led by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, of pushing major State universities into an unprecedented crisis.

In a sharp statement, Nagenthran said he was “shocked and disturbed” by reports that the University of Madras had withdrawn Rs 95 crore from its corpus fund to pay pension arrears due to lack of operational funds.

“This is a shameful situation. The DMK government is bankrupting universities,” he alleged.

Nagenthran noted that the University of Madras, one of India’s oldest and most prestigious institutions, has been struggling for years because of “insufficient” financial support from the State.

“Everyone is aware that the university has not been able to recruit the required number of professors due to a lack of funds. Now, using the principal amount from the corpus fund – not just interest – to pay pensions shows how deep the crisis has become,” he said.

He said corpus funds are meant to ensure long-term financial stability and to meet emergency needs, not to cover routine expenses such as salaries and pensions.

“If the university has been forced to dip into the principal amount, it clearly means that there is no other funding available for even basic expenditures,” he added.

Nagenthran claimed that similar issues are surfacing in other universities as well.

Faculty members at Kamaraj University and Annamalai University have been staging protests over pending salary and pension dues, he said, adding that institutions have been responding with a uniform explanation – “no funds available”.

“This has now become a recurring crisis across Tamil Nadu’s higher education system,” he said.

He criticised the DMK government for spending crores of rupees on publicity campaigns that project Tamil Nadu as a leader in education, while allegedly starving universities of essential funds.

“Instead of strengthening higher education, the DMK is ruining universities, destroying students’ futures, and engaging in hollow promotional activities. The government should feel ashamed,” Nagenthran said.

He urged the State government to take immediate measures to stabilise the financial situation in universities before permanent damage is done to the academic sector.

–IANS

aal/svn