(XI) APPENDIX K MEMORANDUM ON ITEM 14: TO CONSIDER THE QUESTION OF PLACING THE STATE GOVERNMENTS' SHARE OF ASSISTANCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES FORMULATED BY THE UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION, AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE COMMISSION
Grants to universities are paid by the University Grants Commission on a sharing principle since its inception in 1953. Non- recurring grants are normally on the basis two thirds by the Commission and one third by the universities and/or the State Government concerned. Recurring gants are on a 50 : 50 basis. All these grants are only for developmental activities of the State universities. The sharing principle was adopted on the analogy of the pattern of allocation of development funds between the Centre and the State employed by the Planning Commission under the Five-Year Plan. In actual practice this triangular arrangement of matching contributions has led to delays and inequalities in the implementation of developmental proposals on the part of the universities. It has also been the experience of the Commission that at the beginning of a Plan period or during the period, it was very often not certain that the State Government concerned would be able or willing to meet its share of the cost of the schemes proposed. by the university concerned. The suggestion made by the Commission was only to serve the purposes of convenience and expediency on the view that a working arrangement between the Central Government and the State Government in regard to the pooling of resources was possible. If the matching principle is to continue, much will rest on how dependable the Third Plan arrangements are and probably if the State Governments have the funds, they may also not make much difficulty. The University Grants Commission itself would, however, prefer State Governments' share of assistance to the universities also being placed at its disposal so that there is only one body responsible for providing for the development needs of the universities. This means that whatever allocation the Planning Commission may be able to make for the development of university education as a whole in the next Plan period, instead of being split up between the University Grants Commission and the State Governments, be placed in its entirety at the disposal of the University Grants Commission, of course with the consent of the State Governments.
Incidentally it may be mentioned that the possibility of the State Governments' placing money at the disposal of the Commission was envisaged in the University Grants Commission Act itself. Section 16 (1) of the Act reads :
Fund of the Commission
16(1) The Commission shall have its own Fund; and all sums which may, from time to time, be paid to it by the Central Government and all the receipts of the Commission (including any sum which any State Government or any other authority or
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person may hand over to the Commission) shall be carried to the Fund and all payments by the Commission shall be made therefrom.
Detailed information indicating specific instances of delay or difficulty in the implementation of particular schemes caused by the inability of the State Governments to provide a matching grant or to consent to provide a matching grant has been called for from some of the universities. The Commission itself could give examples of delay, but it would take time and effort to make a selection and set them out briefly. Many examples of delay are found-with regard to the scheme to raise salaries of university and college teachers. Proposals for raising salaries of university teachers were first made in 1954, and there are instances where the scheme has not yet been fully implemented because of difficulty in raising the local share of the cost.