NEW DELHI: Delhi Education Minister Atishi on Friday wrote to the Union Education Minister flagging irregularities in 12 colleges affiliated to Delhi University and is currently funded by the Delhi government.“In the last few years, the Directorate of Audit, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, has noted several serious irregularities and procedural lapses involving crores of rupees from the public exchequer,” stated Atishi while addressing a conference on Friday.
Giving examples of the irregularities in a letter, Atishi wrote, “Colleges have created posts and engaged teaching and non-teaching staff without the approval of their administration department and the finance department of the Government of NCT Delhi.“Secondly, salaries worth several crores of rupees are being paid to those who were never appointed through the established procedures,” the letter said.
Other irregularities listed include unauthorised appropriation of funds from GIA, including salary to the GIA-General; arbitrary and irregular payments towards sanitation and security services, and allotment of canteen and other contractual services.“Despite having crores of funds lying in their corpus, many of these colleges have not taken any initiative to pay the salaries or other dues of their staff in a timely manner,” the letter said.
The minister proposed that the Delhi University de-affialiate these colleges, after which the Delhi government will designate them as campus of Ambedkar University or Delhi Skills and Enterpreneurship University. Alternatively, she proposed that the colleges will remain under Delhi University, but the Central government would fully fund these colleges through UGC or Higher Education Grants Council.
“In either case, we request you to kindly work out a time-bound transition so that this uncertainty is removed within the remaining months of the current financial year,” the letter said, requesting the Centre to take a decision within a month. Thereafter, in the next three months — before March 31, 2024 — the transition based on the decision may be operationalised.”
However in the end, Atishi assured that the Delhi government intends to work closely with the Union Ministry of Education to find a lasting solution for effective governance of these 12 colleges so that they meet the aspirations of their students.
‘Creation of unauthorised posts, misappropriation of funds’
The colleges have created posts and engaged teaching and non-teaching staff without the approval of their administration department and Delhi government’s finance department
The colleges paid salaries worth several crores of rupees to employees who were never appointed through the established procedures
Other issues include unauthorised appropriation of funds from GIA, arbitrary and irregular payments towards sanitation and security services, and allotment of canteen and other contractual services