Meager allocation in the Budget to hit Higher Education

In Telangana Budget, Osmania University got a meager fund of Rs 238 crore when the demand was Rs 750 crore and all the funds go towards pensions and salaries.

Allocation of scanty means in the Telangana Budget to the universities will have a solemn impact on higher education and this could crash the government measures to transform the state in to an education hub.

The Telangana meager budget indicates to a large extent that the state run conventional varsities will have to produce its own resources and the government will be focusing more on technical education. Osmania and Kakatiya, traditional universities witnessed an enormous slit in allocation and prerequisite.

Osmania University was anticipating the positive reaction to their requests as it has released a MP, MLA and also the Chairman of SC Development Corporation directly from the Telangana movement.

B. Satyanarayana, OUTA prof said “We are expecting a considerable increase at least with the Telangana sentiment that got impelled by the Osmania students”.

Similarly, Kakatiya University got Rs 67.03 crore when it requested Rs 104 crore. Compared to those Osmania and Kakatiya universities JNTUH is little bit lucky as it received Rs 55.44 crore when it wanted Rs 70 crore indicating that technical education is likely to be priority.

The new universities which need more funds are the awful hit like Satavahana University, which was received Rs 21.60 crore, Palamuru University Rs 8.10 crore, Mahatma Gandhi University Rs 15 crore and Telangana University Rs 28.29 crore. However, the only consolation is that most universities showed signs of improvement than the previous year.

“Scanty allocation will lead to teachers accusing the government and avoiding obligation and responsibility,” observes a retired professor.

Another professor argues that “revealing the lack of seriousness on the education sector, the government failed to include teachers in its budget preparations, unfortunately.

Meager funds will also affect varsities gaining NAAC accreditation that will be obligatory for raising funds from different agencies. “The fee reimbursement scheme will keep on being a major load on government with Rs 2677 crore allotted to it. The Government allocated Rs 1367 crore for BC category, Rs 646.52 crore for SC category, Rs 425 crore for minorities and Rs 239.20 crore for ST category. The fund will be sufficient since the government is planning a few stringent measures to choose recipients to plug abuse.