Chennai: As part of austerity measures, Anna University has stopped the fuel supply for five cars used by higher education minister K.Anbalagan and higher education secretary Mangat Ram Sharma from this month.
These cars were originally bought for the university and are being used by the minister and the official in violation of rules.
"These cars were bought by the university for some specific use. But, they are being used for other purposes without any proper reason or accountability," reliable sources in the university said.
The university vehicles would be provided with tokens to fill the fuel at the petrol station in T. Nagar. By giving the tokens, the drivers would fill the fuel for their vehicles. Later, the university will reimburse the bills to the petrol station.
It was found out that the university is paying the bills for six cars that were not used by any of its officials. “Each car consumes a minimum of 100 litres of petrol every month. This is an unnecessary burden on the university. So we have stopped issuing tokens,” sources said.
“Additional secretary of higher education department R. Lilly has returned the university’s car,” sources added.
These cars belonged to various departments including the office of the controller of examinations (CoE) and additional controller of examinations (ACOE).
“These two offices have money and there is no cap on the fuel use for the cars belonging to the CoE and ACOE offices,” one of the professors explained the reason.
Earlier, all these cars were provided with drivers employed with the university and still, one car has university driver.
“In the absence of university cars, the officials will hire taxis which will increase the expenditure,” professors said.
Some professors alleged that cars belonging to state universities like Bharathiar university are also being used in Chennai.
“The minister or secretary should not use university cars. It is a total misuse of power. The government is providing official cars for their use,” said E. Balagurusamy, former vice-chancellor, Anna University.
He further attributed the violation of rules to the weakness of vice-chancellors.
“The university is an autonomous body and it has own problems in funding. The university has done the right thing and they have no business to use the resources of Anna University for any purpose,” he said.
