PATNA, DEC 21: There is a college in Bihar with perhaps the best teacher-student ratio in the world. The SBAN College, Darhetta-Lahiri (Jehanabad), was established in 1970. It had 16 teachers on its rolls until the government converted it into a constituent college in 1991. Suddenly, 111 new teachers as well as 79 non-teaching staff members were appointed. For 262 students, there are 127 teachers. So while there's one teacher for every 56 students in the university, there's one teacher for every 2.24 students in this college.At Magadh University, there are no accounts, no registers for what happened to Rs 48.54 crore that came in as grants in 1997-1998.Saying that it wanted to hold ``centralised exams,'' Magadh University constructed an examination hall to seat 1,500 students at the cost of Rs 18.96 lakh in 1991. Until 1998, not one exam has been held there.If you thought Bihar universities were in a mess, wait until you read the latest report by the Comptroller andAuditor General of India (CAG). Gross financial irregularities, one-and-a-half times more appointments than the number of sanctioned staff, pay scales above and beyond those recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission, post-graduate programmes in violation of government's orders, delay of as much as eight months in declaration of results, even printing of excess question papers probably for sale before examinations the functioning of universities in Bihar is a showcase of everything that is wrong with the State.The CAG report for the last financial year which has reviewed the universities' functioning from 1991 to 1997, has indicted all the 12 universities of Bihar and pointed out that despite strictures against them in earlier reports, authorities have done nothing.The villain of the piece is the 37-year-old Magadh University at Bodh Gaya. So bad is the system of accounting here that in March 1998, when the CAG asked for details regarding the expenditure of Rs 48.54 crore that the university had receivedas grants in 1997-1998, university authorities pleaded helplessness.Another glaring malpractice was the printing of extra question papers which were then sent to exam centres even where the exam wasn't being conducted. Not ruling out the possibility of theft or misuse of these question papers, the CAG says that a random check revealed that more than 58 per cent of the question papers remained unutilised. Same was the case with question papers for Honours students 93.54 per cent of the question papers remained unutilised!It was found that Magadh University had to collect Rs 28.19 crore as revenue from tuition fee, migration fee, examination fee and sale of forms. However, a test check of five constituent colleges revealed shocking irregularities. For example, two assistants of the examination branch had been issued forms for sale between 1992-1995. They collected Rs 24.20 lakh but there were no records to show that the money was deposited in the university till March 1998. Worse, the university made noeffort to recover this money. Reason: one official is under suspension, the other has already retired.The report also points out that 50 per cent of the appointments in the non-teaching staff were in excess of the sanctioned strength. This led to an additional burden of Rs 2.65 crore on the university. It was also found that several universities continued to pay salaries to teachers as well as non-teaching staff who had been elected or nominated to Parliament or state legislature as the matter was pending in court. The report observes that the university sustained a loss of Rs 8.52 crore on purchase of paper at higher rates. In one case, the university paid twice the amount that it should have to procure paper for production of answer sheets.In another case, the university sustained losses of Rs 1.43 lakh in procuring paper from Bihar Text Book Corporation. Though they paid them Rs 7.12 lakh for the supply of 75 ton of paper, the corporation supplied them only 60 ton.The report also points out thatdespite the fact that the University Act states that the results of the examinations should be published in the official gazette within 60 days of the completion of the exam, there were delays every year ranging from at least two months to seven-and-a-half months.
