The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has seen a substantial decrease in its academic expenses over the past three financial years, affecting the organisation of seminars and workshops; subscription to journals and publications; and sponsorship of fellowships and research activities.
The matter was raised by members of the executive council (EC), the university’s top decision-making body, after the annual financial report for 2019-20 was presented before the council on Monday.
Security expenses has increased from Rs 17.37 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 18.54 crore in 2018-19. For 2019-20, the security budget was Rs 15.34 crore. In the same period, legal and security expenses have increased in the university. Legal expenses increased from Rs 2.72 lakh in 2017-18 to Rs 17.7 lakh in 2018-19. An additional fund of Rs 30 lakh was approved for legal expenses this year in the EC meeting held on September 7, in additional to the already sanctioned budget of Rs 9 lakh.
JNU registrar Mr. Pramod Kumar confirmed that the matter was raised by some EC members on Monday. He said that reduction in the academic expenses has not affected the academic performance of the University. While explaining about the increase in Security Cost, he said there has been several issues in the past for that we have to increase security and so many legal cases were filed against the administrations and a lot of money was spent in that.