IIT-B turns to alumni to pay salaries of contractual staff

With non-tuition fees waived off or reduced, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), has turned yet again to its alumni to pay the contractual workers

With non-tuition fees waived off or reduced, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), has turned yet again to its alumni to pay the contractual workers engaged on campus.

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The institute launched a donation drive last week to raise ₹50 lakh through faculty and alumni networks. Subhasis Chaudhuri, director, IIT-B, said, “This (donation drive) is mostly to help those workers who were working in hostels and other facilities on campus. Now that many hostels are closed and various student hostel related fees have been reduced, we have launched this initiative.”

This was preceded by another donation drive from alumni for buying laptops and broadband for students ahead of the online semester. Around ₹7 crore was raised for the purpose.

The donation drives are indicative of the financial implication of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on the institute. On June 25, the institute announced that the entire autumn semester will be conducted in an online mode. Subsequently, the administration slashed or waived off several non-tuition components of fees collected from students.

While the gymkhana fees has been slashed ₹2,000 per semester to ₹500 per semester, medical fees, hostel rent and electrical and water charges have been waived off for students who are not on campus.

According to professor Prasanna Mujumdar, deputy director of finance and external affairs, the cut in gymkhana fees results in a loss of around ₹1.4 crore and waiver in other components amount to around ₹6 crore. With the institute deferring any increase in fees to the next academic year, the difference in income and expenses can further swell.

“IIT-B has deferred implementation of any increase in both tuition and non-tuition fees to academic year 21-22. Further, the income from fees will reduce due to the fee components which have been reduced/will not be charged,” added Mujumdar.

In view of the pandemic, the institute is also allowing students to defer the payment of their fees till September. Meanwhile, the sanctioned and released funds from the central government agencies are lower than the initial allocation, said Mujumdar.

The institute is wading through the crisis by following the cash management guidelines of the central government and keeping expenditure control in first and second quarters.

“In view of the pandemic, lockdown and orders to keep educational institutes closed during the lockdown period, students are not permitted to stay on campus. Therefore, expenditure has also reduced somewhat. Overall, we are able to manage the balance between income and expenditure, and the institute’s finances are not largely affected by the pandemic,” he said.

HT had earlier reported that the institute was facing a severe cash crunch and in November last year, Chaudhuri had asked faculty members to explore fundraising options.