Even as the frequent appearance of various zoonotic diseases, including caused by Nipah virus, has put the State government on tenterhooks, the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) is grappling with a severe financial crisis similar to the one faced by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The KVASU has the mandate to control and prevent zoonotic diseases, among others, by ensuring quality animal healthcare through sustained academic research and related activities.
For a fifth month in the current year, salary disbursement at the 12-year-old university has been delayed, affecting its routine functioning. The KVASU, which won the Governor’s Emerging Young University recognition three times in a row, now reels under a financial liability of close to ₹100 crore.
Speaking to The Hindu, Sabin George, general secretary, Confederation of University Teachers Organisations of Kerala (CUTOK), the employees’ outfit at the university, said the financial crisis has now gone from bad to worse with the monthly deficit accumulating to a whopping ₹83 crore.
“There are faculty members at the university who pay the electricity bills of their research lab from their own pocket in order to run the show. The situation will worsen further if the State government fails to interfere and provide an adequate non-Plan grant for the university,” said Dr. George.
The university receives a monthly non-Plan grant of ₹7.8 crore from the government. Further, it has a monthly revenue of about ₹1.5 crore from its farms, totalling to a monthly revenue of ₹9.36 crore.
But the university requires around ₹13 crore a month to foot the salary bills of the staff, farm expenses and other establishment expenses, entailing a monthly deficit of ₹3.63 crore. “It is difficult to run the university with a huge monthly deficit. Even the arrears to private ingredient suppliers at the feed manufacturing unit at the university would come to around ₹3 crore. If they cut the feed ingredient supply, the operation of farms will run into rough weather,” added Mr. George.
There was a 17% average increase in the non-Plan grant to the university in the first six years, but it dropped to a mere 3.5% in the last six years (from 2018-19 to 2023-24). This has aggravated the situation. Though a university delegation recently met the Finance Minister with a request to provide an additional grant to tide over the crisis, the Finance department is reportedly dragging its feet owing to the poor financial situation of the State.
Meanwhile, a section of senior officials in the administration alleged that financial stifling of the university will pave the way for the emergence of private and foreign universities, and that universities such as the KVASU will eventually lose out in the competition.
