Teaching, non-teaching associations of Madurai Kamaraj University stage demonstration over unpaid salaries

MKU staff members not paid salaries. Officials say UGC move has led to funds crunch. TN govt urged to intervene. Funds crunch due to distance edu enrolment falling from 1 lakh to 5,000. Govt suggested 5 UG courses to generate revenue. Affiliation fees also revised. Hopeful of overcoming financial crunch soon.

The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has not paid its staff members their salaries, leading to faculty associations staging a demonstration at the university campus on Monday.

Seeking the Tamil Nadu government’s intervention, office-bearers of various associations of teaching and non-teaching groups, urged the government to take immediate steps to disburse their salary.

While the protesters found fault with the Vice-Chancellor and a few administrative heads for the non-payment of salaries, senior university officials said that it was mainly due to a move imposed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) that had led to a severe funds crunch.

MKU, the officials said, depended on distance education, which was a “cash cow” for the university. After the UGC curtailed universities to being able to run distance education centres only within their jurisdictions, the university’s finances took a hit. From 1 lakh students enrolled in the distance education stream, the university now has only a meagre 5,000 students, which has badly hit revenues.

Officials said that they required ₹10.50 crore every month for disbursal of salaries and pensions. There are about 300 teaching, and 700 non-teaching staff members, which include guest lecturers and those on temporary pay scales, among others. Last year, when the University faced a similar crunch, then Finance Minister P.T.R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan helped by releasing ₹58 crore after the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and other senior officials including a few Syndicate members met him, officials said.

Once again in a similar situation this year, the University had represented to the State government about 10 days ago to immediately grant it funds, the officials said and added that as per the suggestions from the government, they have started five undergraduate programmes, including B. Com, B. Sc (Artificial Intelligence), Computer Science and Cyber Security, which have started yielding revenues. The university, which has 116 colleges affiliated to it, has also revised the affiliation fees.

MKU has a credible NAAC ranking, and officials said that they are hopeful of overcoming the present financial crunch and are confident of disbursing salaries on time from the ensuing month.