Five months on, 61 DU colleges yet to receive student fee

The principal of Hindu College, Anju Srivastava, said, “We don’t know the reason for this delay but we are facing this problem for the first time. It’s a huge sum, and the delay is affecting the functioning of the college.”

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According to principals, the university needs to transfer around Rs 4-5 crore to each of the 61 colleges (File)

During the admission process this year, Delhi University had collected student fees in a centralised manner. The fees, the university had said, would be sent back to the colleges. However, even though five months have gone by, the university is yet to return 61 colleges their student fees. The colleges have now alleged that it is hampering their developmental work.

According to principals, the university needs to transfer around Rs 4-5 crore to each of the 61 colleges. Sources from the colleges said that they have communicated with the university over the issue several times but are yet to hear from them.

The principal of Hindu College, Anju Srivastava, said, “We don’t know the reason for this delay but we are facing this problem for the first time. It’s a huge sum, and the delay is affecting the functioning of the college.”

Even though the process of centralised admission has been in place since 2014, the fee was collected by the respective colleges. The process of fee collection was made online last year. This year, fees were collected in two stages — first the candidates paid a registration fee, and then, once they got admission into colleges, they paid the admission fee.

The colleges have alleged that the delay has affected infrastructural work, disbursal of scholarships as well as the budget of the colleges for this financial year. Rama Sharma, the principal of Hansraj College, said: “It is a big amount that we are supposed to get from the university. It is but obvious that our work is getting affected because of the delay. We are hoping that the money will be credited to our account by this week.” Principals of other colleges maintained that they are somehow managing with a deficit.

“We have to plan the year’s budget and this amount is an important part of it. If the university could not manage, they should have let the colleges handle the fees by themselves,” said a principal of a South Campus college on condition of anonymity. The university admission in-charge Ashutosh Bhardwaj did not respond to queries on the delay in disbursal of the amount to the colleges.