'No big lump sums for division' of BU

The finance department has sounded an early warning on limited monetary resources for the new universities to be carved out of Bangalore University (BU).

Funds will be allotted in a phased manner – not at once – to the new universities being carved out of BU. “There will not be so much resource that you can hand it all over at once,” I S N Prasad, Principal Secretary, Finance, told Deccan Herald.

When this reporter contacted him to understand the financial situation for BU trifurcation, Prasad said: “We will have to move stage by stage. There won’t be one lump sum. But ultimately, the Cabinet is the superior body which will discuss the issue and the finance department will be in line with the Cabinet decision. Do not get the impression that the department is against the Cabinet. But this doesn’t mean that somebody can forward a bill of Rs 500 crore or Rs 700 crore or any sum like that, because we won’t have so much money.”

“Land,” Prasad continued, “is the biggest issue. What if a new university were to ask for 500 acres of land for its establishment? Firstly, land is not easily available and even if it is, if each acre costs Rs one crore, where will we have the money to dole out Rs 500 crore? And if the second university, too, asked for the same, where will we go? We have to sit and talk and work out different adjustments. We have to be realistic about the resources. I am worried about land because plenty of colleges are located within the limits of Bengaluru itself, and land within Bengaluru costs an astronomical sum of money. So, there is an issue to be dealt with.”

The universities, he said, may have to start operating out of existing set-ups or rent small buildings. The department will allocate resources phase by phase to have new set-ups and buildings for the new universities.

According to the finance department, it hasn’t rejected any current proposal on the new universities. It only rejected an earlier proposal which envisioned BU as a collection of four and five units. “We straightaway rejected this proposal. We made it clear there won’t be enough money to run all the units and that it would lead to a collapse. Another proposal had recommended four units.

That too was not accepted. But we have taken up the proposal which envisions BU as three units, one plus two. There was an idea of running BU as a unitary university and run the two new universities as affiliates. But I think we haven’t come to a stage where we can afford to have exclusive unitary universities. We haven’t graduated that far,” Prasad observed.

The detailing of financial requirements for the new universities has not happened yet. The proposal will have to be brought before the Legislative Assembly and the Council and appropriate Acts would have to be enacted to legitimate the new universities. Thereafter, major decisions have to be taken—who will be the vice-chancellor, from which building where will he/she work, where to locate the two universities and the like. As the detailing gets worked out, appropriate costs would be worked out simultaneously, he added.