A GIFT given with noble intentions and for the benefit of the students seems to have been 'forgotten' by Allahabad University (AU).
Even an year after duly accepting demand draft worth Rs 25 lakh from a former AU Executive Council member, the varsity officials have not only failed to turn his dream of a hostel exclusively for the research scholars a reality but has even failed to include it in any of the university's immediate future plans!
Former Executive Council member Surendra Bahadur Singh had put forth a proposal for the construction of a hostel exclusively for AU Research Scholars and had volunteered to donate Rs 25 lakh to the varsity for the purpose. He had a simple request: Name the hostel after his late father.
Singh formally and publicly announced his plans to donate Rs 25 lakh during the convocation function on February 23, 2005--while AU was still a state university--and later donated the money after the varsity accepted the proposal.
AU's then VC Prof HR Singh even wrote a letter thanking him for the gesture on April 28, 2005. The proposal was put before the Executive Council on May 2, 2005 and duly approved by the varsity's apex decision making body.
However, despite passage of full one year after receiving the money, AU authorities have not only failed to make the hostel a reality but have even neglected it in university's future plans.
{{/usCountry}}However, despite passage of full one year after receiving the money, AU authorities have not only failed to make the hostel a reality but have even neglected it in university's future plans.
{{/usCountry}}Even during the meeting of the AU Planning and Development Board held on August 28, 2006, allocation of Rs 4 crore was approved for the construction of one hostel each for the boys and the girls besides Rs 1 crore for repair of hostels but no mention was made of the proposed hostel for the research scholars. Similarly, the Xth Plan Allocation (Additional) for 2006-07 mentions Rs 2.80 crore for construction of hostel annexes of the PCB Hostel and AN Jha Hostel among other things but totally ignores the proposed hostel for the research scholars.
Surprisingly, even the 'Vision Plan: 2006-11' prepared by a specially constituted 17-member academic committee seems to have given the proposed hostel a skip.
On being contacted, AU PRO and CPIO Prof Amrendra Singh said, "The varsity had requested the state government to sanction a matching grant at the time but nothing happened and the varsity became a Central University during the time. We will now take up the issue again with the Centre and do the needful."
Prof Singh said that now that AU was a Central University, naming the hostel after the former Executive Council member's father too would have to be looked into afresh as per new guidelines.
AU Executive Council Member Sunit Vyas, who was member of the EC even when AU was a state university, said, "A hostel for the research scholars is the need of the hour. None of us have an idea as to why the proposed hostel has not been constructed nor know exactly as to what the impediments are as AU officials have failed to inform us in this regard."
Vyas said that he would raise the issue during the next Executive Council meeting and seek to know about the status of the project as well as the money received by AU for the purpose.