BENGALURU: After the recent deadlock over the ownership of stone building (Prasanna Kumar Block) at Central College campus, another fight has erupted between Bengaluru University and Bengaluru Central University over getting hold of Jnana Jyothi Auditorium located in the Central College campus.
BU officials have alleged that authorities of Bengaluru Central University (BCU) were putting pressure on getting ownership of Jnana Jyothi auditorium as it was one of the main sources of income. Various bodies, associations and academic groups frequently hold seminars and conferences at the auditorium, ensuring a steady revenue build-up.
“Though the expert committee constituted for trifurcation purpose clearly said Jnana Jyothi auditorium would remain with the parent Bangalore University until it constructed another similar auditorium at Jnana Bharathi campus, the authorities of Bengaluru Central university are putting pressure on us to hand it over,” said a senior official of BU.
As it was mentioned in the expert committee report, the auditorium would remain with the parent university which would be shared with Bengaluru Central and Bengaluru North universities whenever they needed it, free of cost.
According to the information available from BU, the rent for Jnana Jyothi auditorium for public events is Rs 1 lakh per day and it will be blocked for various events at least half of the month.
“Bengaluru Central university authorities tried to get hold of Prasanna Kumar Block at Central College campus where evaluation work was going on. They allegedly threatened to lock the building and even started painting the walls when the scripts were still inside the building. After we promised vacating it once evaluation work was completed, they stopped annoying us. Now, they have started fighting for Jnana Jyothi auditorium,” mentioned the official.
A meeting was arranged between BU and BCU authorities on Wednesday. But that, too, got postponed indefinitely.