Chennai: Of Rs 320 crore allocated to the state universities in the budget, Annamalai University alone gets Rs 139 crore (43 per cent) for the financial year 2017-18.
The remaining Rs 181 crore will be distributed to more than 10 universities, including University of Madras, Anna University and Madurai Kamaraj University.
The Tamil Nadu government took over the administration of the Annamalai University in 2013 after financial and administrative irregularities found in the university.
“Since the takeover, the state government has allotted huge sums of money to the university compared to other state universities. It hurts the functioning and recruitment process in the universities,” professors said.
Last year, the University of Madras was allocated Rs 23.59 crore whereas the Annamalai University got Rs 213 crore.
Though the funds’ allocation to the Annamalai University has come down significantly from Rs 213 crore to Rs 139 crore this year, the professors attributed it to the redeployment of surplus staff to the government colleges.
The Madras University is having just 274 teachers against the sanctioned strength of 831. “But, the finance department is not giving approval to new recruitment. At the same time, the government is giving more funds to the university where they have appointed the staff over and above of the allotted strength. In some departments, the university has more staff members than students,”they alleged.
A senior professor from University of Madras said, “Instead of dumping the public money into the private university, the government should liberally support the public universities.” In the budget estimates 2017-18, '3,680 crore allocated for the higher education department.
