NEW DELHI: Apart from a fee hike, withdrawal of fixed deposits and consultancy projects as solutions to overcome ‘serious’ financial crisis at Jamia Millia Islamia University, caused by fund cuts and delay in their release by the government, the university has been pushing for shoots of films and advertisements on their campus, the teachers’ association said on Sunday.
Jamia Teachers’ Association Secretary Majid Jamil told this newspaper that the issue of the financial crisis was more than a-year-old.
“The government has cut funds so we are trying our best to generate resources from different ways. For about one and a half year, the government has been releasing funds quite late. That is why the university sometimes finds it difficult to pay the salaries in time.”
“We have enhanced the fee and are contacting the industries and consultancies for teachers to generate funds, a part (30 per cent) of which goes to the varsity,” Jamil said.
Jamil said there has been a situation when the varsity has had to withdraw money before the fixed maturity date to pay its teachers in time.
“We are facing a serious issue of fund crunch. In a crisis, the university has paid the timely salary using other sources like FDs or CISR,” he said.
The income generated by film shooting, according to Jamil, has been one of the ways to deal with the crunch.
For the live grand finale of TV show Bigg Boss, its anchor Salman Khan connected with the students of JMI through video-conferencing.
A feature film titled, “Doordarshan”, casting actors Mahi Gill and Manu Rishi, was also shot on the campus.
Highlighting the fund crunch, the JTA Secretary said that the HRA dues, which the government had announced it would pay, were still pending.
“Three months back, the government announced that as per the 7th pay commission, the HRA should be paid to the employees of past one-and-a-half years but it hasn’t happened as of now. Teachers and the non-teaching staff are waiting but the administration has said that the money hasn’t been received,” he said.
According to a university official who didn’t want to be named, Subway India renovated one of the classrooms to shoot its advertisement.
“Subway spent more than Rs 2 lakh to revamp that room and the corridor,” he said, adding that parts of the campus were recently used to shoot a Malayali film also.
Writer-Director Imtiaz Ali visited the university last week to check out its campus to shoot a part of the sequel of his 2009 film Love Aaj Kal.
“Film shootings rarely happened at Jamia earlier. We have been pushing for them now like other universities in the city to generate some extra income by charging Rs 50,000 a day. We give a concession if the film has a social message,” the official said while speaking to this reporter.