Death knell for higher education: Sampat

Hisar, May 7

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Former Finance Minister Sampat Singh today said by converting the grant-in-aid to the state universities into loan, the Haryana Government had sounded the death knell for higher education.

Accordingly, the government has released Rs 147 crore as the first loan instalment. “This means that all government universities will have to adopt the self-financing pattern and students will be paying exorbitant fees to angle these institutions to pay off these loans.”

“This would lead to universities running into losses and going bankrupt, giving the government an excuse to sell these off to private business houses of their choice.”

He said on the one hand, the government didn’t tire of claiming credit for setting up new universities while on the other, it was making sure that the existing ones would face closure in near future.

Sampat further said so far, the universities had been getting about Rs 300 to Rs 350 crore per year budget provision. But under the new provision, the oldest Kurukshetra University would get just Rs 60 crore loan, he added.

“The decision has been taken merely to help the existing private universities in Haryana at the cost of the state ones, which would later be sold to private players.”

He feared that the same loan scheme would later be extended to government colleges, schools and technical educational institutions too. Claiming the new scheme would add to unemployment as poor students would drop out, he urged the government to withdraw the decision.