Kolkata Community Portal || World Bank To Cut Down On Funds For Calcutta University

World Bank To Cut Down On Funds For Calcutta University

By siddharth22, Section News
Posted on Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 02:42:13 AM EST

The World Bank has decided against accrediting Rs 55 lakh of the total allotted fund of Rs 30 crore to Calcutta University, sanctioned under Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), owing to the university's failure in utilising the fund appropriately.

The matter came to light at a meeting organised by the State Program Facilitation Unit (SPFU) on 26 February. The World Bank deducted a total of Rs 70 lakh from the state's share of Rs 153 crore. SPFU in turn, deducted the amount from the institutes that have not been adept enough in utilising the allocated funds.

CU has to bear the major share of the cuts in fund allotment, amounting to Rs 55 lakh. Another Rs 5 lakh each has been deducted from the funds allotted to three other institutes namely ~ Haldia Institute of Technology, Kalyani Government Engineering College and Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College.

It may be recalled that World Bank had served several notices to CU urging it to furnish the procurement details. CU was also ranked sixth by SPFU in its recent assessment report.

However, university authorities denied that the cuts in fund allocation is due to their failure in utilising funds. "The depreciation of rupee against dollar led to this decision by World Bank.

It is not at all related with the institutes' incompetency in utilising disbursed funds", said Prof Sushanto Sen, dean, engineering and technology and convener, TEQIP.

However, teachers feel otherwise. "Why did the World Bank spare the rest, when CU was enlisted among the institutes that would be refused further funds?" said a senior CU professor. Expressing disgust, another teacher said that the fund could have been a boon to the cash-strapped university and helped the institute to procure instruments and books required for upgrading research facilities.

In 2004 among 11 institutes selected under TEQIP, the World Bank had sanctioned a decent amount of Rs 30 crore to CU. Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science College bagged Rs 24 crore each while Rs eight to 10 crore was distributed among the other institutes. The lion's share has already been disbursed among the institutes. The deduction will be made on the remaining amount that is pending with the World Bank.

Source:http://www.thestatesman.net,06-03-08

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