NEW DELHI: The closure of administrative block of Jawaharlal Nehru University following a month-long deadlock between the JNU administration and students has resulted to stacking up of perishable lab chemicals at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. This in turn is incurring huge losses to the university.
The students, under the banner of JNU Students Union, have been protesting against the latest notification of the University Grants Committee (UGC) to balance the student-teacher ratio and giving 100% weightage to viva. They have also been demanding to hold back the publication of JNU prospectus for 2017-18 admissions. The matter is pending with the Delhi High Court.
“The protest has severely affected the working at varsity laboratories. We are getting requests for lab supplies for research on daily-basis. But, due to non-functioning of the administration none of the payments are being released, and the supplies are lying with the customs department at the airport,” said professor Uttam Pati, Dean of School of Bio-technology, JNU.
The airport authorities are charging the university around `4,000-10,000 daily for the upkeep of the stock. This has affected working in seven Science departments, including live sciences, bio-technology, chemistry, biology, geology of the university.
As per estimates, these chemical products cost between `50,000 and `2 lakh per ml.
Sources in the faculty told The Sunday Standard, 100 perishable items, of the total chemicals lying in the stock, require controlled environment, and most of them are imported from Europe and USA. “Non-clearance of bills is causing huge losses to the department,” the dean added.
The students have been staging protests since first week of February.