PATNA: UGC chairman Sukhdeo Thorat said here on Saturday the universities of Bihar have failed to develop themselves owing to non-procurement and non-utilisation of grants.
“The universities here hardly utilise 30 percent of the sanctioned grants, refunding the remaining 70 percent to the UGC,” he said.
Speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural function of the 13th annual conference of the Economic Association of Bihar at the A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies here, Thorat regretted that the universities were not taking advantage of the various development schemes floated by the UGC in recent years and hence they were lagging behind others at the national level. Association president Sudama Singh presided.
Thorat further observed, “Our agricultural production was not target-oriented, giving rise to grave inequalities and also leading to violence. The benefit of institutional finance fails to reach the target group with middlemen consuming the lion’s share.”
Prominent among those who addressed the conference included Punjab University vice chancellor S Sobti, Gujarat Central University VC R S Kale, Mysore University VC M Maddaiya and Dawangiri (Karnataka) University VC S Indumati. Association general secretary Anil Kumar Thakur conducted the proceedings.
Later, delivering the Pradhan Harishankar Prasad memorial lecture on agricultural development in the afternoon session, Orissa State Farmers Commission member Sudhakar Panda observed the Indian agriculture system is facing a crisis with an ever-increasing number of farmers committing suicide. The main reason for farmers’ suicide is their inability to repay the debt to banks and money lenders which continue to humiliate them regularly.
Panda said the farmers are unable to repay their debt because they do not get the reasonable prices for their products. He said immediate steps must be taken to redress the farmers problems for boosting agricultural growth.
Presiding over this session, Patna University economics teacher N K Chaudhary pointed out that the Indian agriculture registered a negative growth rate (minus 0.2 percent) in the last fiscal. In Bihar, the agricultural growth rate fell down to minus 18 percent. A N Sinha Institute director D M Diwakar proposed a vote of thanks.