RTMNU Senate clears budget, with additional provisions

Staff Reporter :

The budget and annual report of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) were passed in the Senate meeting on Saturday, after approval to increase in financial allocation for some schemes. Apart from the issue of deposits in Yes Bank, the issue of unused properties figured in the Senate meeting held on Saturday. On demand of the Senate members, RTMNU increased the financial allocation on various schemes pertaining to students by Rs 7.50 crore in the annual budget for the year 2020-21. On Friday, RTMNU had proposed budget of Rs 386 crore, and some members flayed the administration for less allocation for students.

During the discussion on budget on Saturday, Senate members Adv Manmohan Bajpai, Sheelwant Meshram, Vishnu Changde and others raised the demand for increase in allocation for students. As far as financial provisions were concerned, Adv Bajpai and Changde demanded that the allocation under ‘Learn and Earn Scheme’ in all the affiliated colleges of RTMNU should be increased to Rs 10 crore. The members also demanded increase in allocation for some other schemes. Finally, the university administration agreed to increase allocation for ‘Learn and Earn Scheme’ by Rs 7.50 crore, Rs 1 crore for travel concession scheme named after Savitribai Phule, Rs 1 crore provision for ‘Vidya Dhan Yojana’, and additional financial provision under ‘Mata Manjulabai Suraksha Yojana’.

After the discussion, the Senate gave its nod to the budget and annual report. Senate member Adv Manmohan Bajpai raised the matter in the meeting. He pointed out that RTMNU had several open lands and unused buildings that were lying idle. The information in this regard should be compiled and a committee should be constituted to give suggestions about putting these properties to use, he demanded. Also, he demanded that the information about the unused materials also should be compiled and placed before the Senate in the next meeting so that the issue could be discussed and decisions in the interest of RTMNU could be taken. Dr S P Kane, Vice-Chancellor of RTMNU, assured to place the information in the next Senate meeting. The issue of RTMNU’s deposits of Rs 191 crore in Yes Bank also came up for discussion. Jagadish Joshi, Senate member, raised the issue aggressively.

Dr Raju Hiwase, Accounts and Finance Officer, informed the Senate members in response that RTMNU had stopped any deposit in Yes Bank and the online payment gateway also was closed. As a result, RTMNU was accepting vaious charges through demand draft. Dr Kane also informed the Senate members about the decision of constituting a committee to suggest measures to tackle the situation created because of Yes Bank crisis.