Chennai: A report tabled by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in Tamil Nadu Assembly found serious lapses in higher education in Tamil Nadu till March 2020. The CAG audit said that the report found diversion of funds allocated to students for research have been diverted to pay salaries and for non-planned expenditure by the University of Madras.
According to a report on PTI, the report by CAG said that the salary given to guest lecturers was much lesser than the salary recommended by University Grants Commission (UGC).
The UGC recommended Universities to pay Rs 50,000 but many guest lecturers were taken to fill up the unfilled vacancies and were paid only Rs 15,000 per month. Till March 2021, the University took 4,084 guest lecturers in university for a Rs 15,000 salary.
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All the more, the report said that the delay by Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) to fill the vacancies has further burdened the University. The guest lecturers were also not taken through a transparent merit based recruitment process. In the total sanctioned strength of 10,079 teachers in government colleges almost 5,190 posts are unfilled leaving 51 per cent of the vacancies vacant.
The audit also exposed that 17 programmes were started in 10 government colleges in 2014-19 with 1,318 students but no teachers were appointed to handle the programmes. The report said, Madras University could not increase the intake of students for PG programmes due to the lesser availability of faculty and facilities.
It also said, the oldest university in Tamil Nadu-- University of Madras--faces financial crisis due to mismanagement and inadequate financial support from the government and hence the funds for research have been given to pay salaries.