Bhanjanagar: Some colleges and universities in Odisha have not been able to submit the utilisation certificates (UCs) by the stipulated period. So they are going to face problems in getting more grants in future, sources said. In the days to come, they will receive funds in their respective ‘zero balance’ accounts only after utilising the funds they have been provided with, it was learnt. The Higher Education department has already issued a notification August 3 asking the colleges that haven’t deposited their UCs to do so as quickly as possible.
An amount of Rs 1853.88 crore was provided to colleges and universities to strengthen their infrastructure and for other purposes under several projects during the period 2003-04 to 2020-21. Of this amount UCs of over Rs 1,000 crore is still pending from various colleges, a source informed. Some of these colleges are in Ganjam district. They have been asked to submit their UCs at the earliest.
Sources said the department will form a committee soon. This committee will visit in the near future the 108 colleges that have been provided with financial aid to check how the funds have been used. They will also inspect the labs at the various institutions to find out if those have been upgraded.
Many colleges in the state also have also failed to utilize the funds provided to them by Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), it has been alleged. In an earlier notification, the Higher Education department asked these institutions to return back the unutilised funds.
Once the money is returned, these institutions will open zero balance accounts. The Higher Education department will then provide them with funds as and when required. The department wants to abolish the practice of unutilised funds lying idle in bank accounts. It said that grants henceforth will be provided on a priority basis to those institutions that have fully utilised the funds provided earlier.
PNN
