Today, Delhi's Higher Education Minister Atishi directed the secretary of higher education to institute an inquiry into the alleged irregularities of government-funded Delhi University's (DU) 12 colleges, officials said. In this regard, Atishi said that there have been "major procedural irregularities" and the colleges appointed 1,897 employees without the Delhi government's approval. Among those employees, 939 are teaching and 958 are non-teaching posts.
The minister directed the secretary to identify and take strong action against the principals and officials responsible for creating illegal posts, including recovering salaries since 2015 of illegally appointed staff members. "These colleges are funded by the public exchequer and, therefore, must be held accountable for any misuse of funds," she said, PTI reported.
Adding more, Atishi said that the lapses include spending hundreds of crores from the public exchequer. "Contracts worth crores for security and sanitation work were executed without adhering to General Financial and violated accounting norms and the approved "Pattern of Assistance" by the Delhi government," she said.
On January 18, DU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Yogesh Singh said that the 12 DU-affiliated colleges which are fully funded by the state government shall continue to remain under DU. This came a day after the city government said it would only continue to fund these colleges once they are de-affiliated from DU and become part of one of Delhi’s state universities, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
