Srinagar Colleges spent meager amounts on books, laboratory equipments

Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Apr 5: Colleges in Srinagar spend more on Sports and developmental activities than buying books for the library and chemical for the laboratory, a Right to Information  (RTI) report revealed.
The report said that all the colleges in Srinagar including Sri Pratap College, Women’s College, Amarsingh College and Abdul Ahad Azad Memorial College Bemina spend more money on the sports and developmental works than upgrading the libraries and laboratories.
The findings suggested that despite an increase in the local college funds they continue to spend insufficient amounts of money to enhance student facilities. The worst hit is the premier science college of Kashmir, S P College Srinagar. In the year 2017-2018, the college revenue rose from Rs. 39,78120 to Rs. 53,26335 but the budget for chemicals and laboratory equipment decreased surprisingly from Rs 34,9471 to 11,8473.
The college has not spent a single penny on the books in 2017 while as over one lakh rupees were spent on different sports activities.  The major share of the money Rs.294107 was spent for developmental activities.  The revelation has come when the college was expected to spend more funds on the upgradtion of laboratories as some 5-6 new postgraduate programmes and two integrated science courses under cluster universities has been introduced in the college. The college has also taken 25 percent students on self-financing quota charging rupees one lakh each.
Although other colleges are doing slightly better than the SP College but the funds allotted for the upgradation of libraries and laboratories are insufficient. Instead of growing need for updated libraries and laboratories the college administration, the report reveals, is diverting the money to other programmes like cultural events and seminars.
In the last two years, the Women’s College has spent over Rs 8 lakhs on the sports activities while as less than Rs 1.5 lakhs were spent on the upgradation of library and books. However, there was 50 percent increase in the budget for upgradation of laboratory and chemicals with the increase in the revenue from Rs 14892300 in 2016-17 to Rs.  17551150 in 2017-18.
In last two years, Amar Singh college has spent Rs. 131171 on sports activities while as a amount of  Rs. 129621 was spent on the upgradation of the library. The local funds also rose from Rs. Rs.7041055 to Rs. 9438245.
Abdul Ahad Azad Memorial College Bemina has not spent a single penny on the up gradation of the library facilities for last two years while as the sports budget has increased from Rs 18051 to Rs 39220. Out of the total Rs  15889330 revenue that college generated from last two years, a major portion of money Rs 4204819, was spent on developmental activities.
The data revealed that the colleges are not providing sufficient facilities to the students as the authorities are prioritizing the less important things over the education. The students in these colleges continue to crave for the books, chemicals in the laboratory and the much-needed glassware for conducting laboratory experiments. Some students have invested huge money in terms of self-financing seats but felt cheated by authorities for not providing the books and equipment.

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