Total grant to HP University Rs 21 crore: CM

Shimla, Mar 6 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today denied that the grant-in-aid to the HP University had been reduced as mentioned in a section of the press, saying that instead it has been raised to Rs 21 crore this year as against Rs 19.18 crore last year.

Making a statement in the Vidhan Sabha here, he said that the decrease was an inadvertent mistake that occurred at the time of schematic budgeting in the education sector where the outlay for other schemes in high education had been increased, which led to a reduction in the grant to the university.

Mr Singh said an entry of Rs 9.32 crore was inadvertently left out in the Budget, which would be corrected forthwith to raise the grant to the University for 2006-07 to Rs 21 crore.

This grant-in-aid to the University was higher this year as against Rs 19.18 crore last year, he added.

The Chief Minister also expressed concern over the functioning of the University, saying that the state Government had also decided to provide an additional grant of Rs 5.21 crore to it this year to meet the salaries, DA and audit fees of its employees.

The recurring part of the additional allocation required to be carried forward to the next year was Rs 1.82 crore and this did not include any liability on account of the audit fees since the Government has decided to pay the salaries of the audit staff directly, he said.

Mr Singh added original grant to the University last year was Rs 19.18 crore, which has been raised to Rs 21 crore by adding the recurring part of Rs 1.82 crore into the grant dispensation for this year.

He assured the House that the genuine requirements of the University would be taken care of, as the government wants it to become a centre of excellence for higher education.

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