Jamia to spend over Rs 1.5 cr on VC office renovation: RTI

Jamia Millia Islamia which recently courted controversy for having spent over Rs 26 lakh on NAAC team visit, has allocated a whopping Rs 1.5 crore for renovation of the Vice Chancellor's office, prompting activists to seek UGC's intervention in the issue.
The UGC, on its part, has sought an explanation from the university about such huge expenditure.
According to the university's response to RTI query filed by activist Firoz Bakht Ahmad, it has earmarked Rs 1,54,27,403 for repairing and refurbishing the VC's office.
Rs 4.8 lakh was spent on the office's renovation during the tenure (2009-2013) of previous Vice Chancellor Najeeb Jung, who is now the lieutenant Governor of the national capital.

Rs 54.8 lakh was spent on refurbishing the office when Mushir-ul-Hasan was the Vice Chancellor from 2004 to 2009.
"It should be a subject matter of thorough probe as to what went wrong with the building and its furniture which were luxuriously renovated in the recent years that the VC office needs such an amount for renovation again, ignoring the laboratories and toilet facilities in the university which remain unattended," a complaint sent to UGC by Ahmad and laywer Atyab Siddiqui said.

While the university authorities maintained that the amount has been allocated keeping the "massive" scale of renovation in mind, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has sought an "explanation" from the university and asked it to take "appropriate action" in this regard.

Jamia spokesperson Mukesh Ranjan said, "Whatever amount has been allocated has been done after following due procedures. The renovation is going on a massive scale so the amount is needed and since inflation has gone up it can't be compared with previous regimes".
The complainants have also claimed that the varsity's
Planning Board, which is a statutory body for planning infrastructural development, has not had a single meeting since its constitution in 25 years.
"It was in 1991 that the Planning Board (Statute 16-A) was created by HRD ministry so that prospective development of Jamia is planned in an efficacious manner, and finances are properly regulated.

"This was a mechanism to do away with haphazard planning, and prevent unnecessary waste of public resources. Unfortunately, since its inception (25 years have lapsed) not a single meeting of the board has been convened," Siddiqui alleged.
However, the varsity spokesperson, said, "All building projects get approved by the Finance Committee and Executive Council that have representations from UGC and MHRD".
A varsity teacher said on condition of anonymity, "It is outrageous that the Vice Chancellor's office, which was renovated fully very recently from tiles to furniture, is being renovated again. Why is that the VC office needs this face-lift every now and then and the demands for other infrastructural needs of the university are answered with paucity of funds. This is tax-payers money".

Jamia had recently hogged limelight for the lavish treatment it extended to a team from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) by spending Rs 26.50 lakh.
The university had booked over a dozen rooms at a five-star hotel, spent nearly Rs 2 lakh on cabs, and Rs 1.26 lakh on leather bags for the team members.