Calcutta University (CU) is in a financial bind. It is bad enough that the state government is desperate to cut down on allocation of funds for higher education. Now the university is set to lose funds amounting to several crore from the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The UGC had given a proposal to CU in 2003 that it would provide a grant of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh to each of the nearly 50 departments in the university’s arts, science and technology faculties. The UGC asked the departments individually to submit their proposals to avail of the funds. Initially, the deadline set for submitting the proposals was the end-2003.

CU sources said noticing the reluctance of the departments to prepare the proposals, the matter was taken up with the UGC authorities and the deadline was extended to March 31.

Vice-chancellor Asis Kumar Banerjee said the departments were working on a war footing to complete the proposals as early as possible and submit the reports by March 31. On the basis of the project reports, the UGC will take the decision on the funds each department deserved. “We have completed most of the projects that were sponsored by various Central government funding agencies and we have submitted the reports to the agencies concerned within the targeted dates. As far as the UGC project is concerned, we are working towards it and we are confident that we will not miss out on it,” Banerjee said.

CU officials, however, said the possibility of the departments availing of the funds remained uncertain as most departments were not in a position to meet the March 31 deadline.

Officials said the UGC funds (Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per department) were meant to help CU upgrade the departments to centres of excellence. The funds are to be used to upgrade laboratories, buy modern equipment and replace old apparatus.

Teachers said red tapism was a big impediment. The delay was caused by a recent decision of the authorities to make it compulsory for the departments to seek the permission of the registrar’s department on all matters related to purchase of any kind of laboratory equipment. “It takes us a long time if we have to run to the authorities all the time,” said a teacher.