The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration Thursday said reports of cuts to its library’s funds were “completely baseless”.
“Reports of the annual budget for JNU’s Dr B R Ambedkar (Central) Library being reduced from Rs 8 crore to Rs 1.7 crore are completely baseless. JNU has only been allocating an amount of Rs 1.7 crore per year to the library for books and journals, from its annual UGC grant. In 2012, the University Grants Commission (UGC) gave a one-time, bulk grant to JNU under the 12th plan for five years, from which an extra amount was allocated for the next five years,” said finance officer Heeraman Tiwari in a statement.
He added, “As the 12th plan is over, the library is running with its regular annual grant. It has already requested UGC to release additional funds.” However, the JNUSU said Tiwari was “hiding” that the amount which UGC released for five years was around Rs 20 crore.