Rs 20 lakh not enough for budget: DUSU

Though the fund has increased, it is still less, it says

 This year’s student union budget is expected to be a minimum of Rs 20 lakh, Delhi University officials said, because of the four fold increase in the amount students paid as DUSU fund.

As students in the last academic session paid Rs 5 towards the union fund, the budget remained at Rs 4 lakh. This year they paid Rs 20 each.

“Because the money contributed by students to DUSU fund has increased four times, the budget session which is expected to tentatively take place by October 28 and 29 will see a steep increase in funds,” said a senior official.

DUSU has 53 colleges under it out of the over 60 colleges in DU. Several colleges in DU have chosen not to have a students union.

DUSU budget is used in organising welfare activities in the campus. Officials feel that an increase will also push the union to involve themselves in student-related issues and activities ‘more seriously’.

“There could be a slight increase or decrease in the budget amount though,” said the official.

The budget session will be attended by central panel members and the recently elected executive committee members from various colleges. A team of 15 union members will decide the final budget amount.

Although there is an increase in the fund the DUSU members think this may still not be enough for ‘concrete and substantial’ steps that can be taken.

High expectations

“With such high number of colleges under DUSU, the increased amount is also not enough. If we are thinking of putting up water coolers in a college, or other similar activity, then the money is too less. DUSU has to organise fresher parties, annual festivals among other things because when students demand they expect it to be good,” said Amrish Ranjan Pandey, spokesperson, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).

Pandey added, “In a small campus like Jawaharlal Nehru University, such an amount will be good enough. We require a minimum of Rs 50 lakh. The DUSU office has a staff of four to five people, we pay their salaries, then there are other expenses like newspapers, tea etc which also costs money.”

In this year’s DUSU elections, NSUI won three posts and there was a tie between NSUI candidate and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate who were later given a six-month term each for the same post.

The recent elections for executive committee members of DUSU also had a majority of candidates from NSUI.