Cracking the whip on Delhi University, the Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government has threatened to stop all funds to all the government-funded colleges that it controls from August 1 unless the varsity constitutes governing bodies before that. As many as 28 DU affiliated colleges are aided by the Delhi government, wherein 12 of them are fully funded while the rest have been provided with five per cent grant. These colleges need to constitute governing bodies having five members in each who are nominated by the Delhi government to the college, who play a role in decision making ranging from finance to introducing new courses. But despite communicating 11 times in past 11 months, no action has been taken in this regard by the colleges. This led the government to take this stricter approach, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia told The Indian Express. Terming the delay a deliberate act by the university administration, the minister said that he has directed the Director (Higher Education) to communicate to the University that all funds from the Government of NCT of Delhi shall be stopped if the governing bodies are not constituted by July 31, 2017. He has asked the Principal Secretary (Finance) to abide by the instructions unless written communication is received from the Directorate of Higher Education with regard to the constitution of governing bodies, said the report.

According to Sisodia, the Delhi government has written to the Delhi University a total of 11 times since September last year in this regard but it yielded no result. However, now the government has directed the Finance Department to “issue written instructions to accounts officers of all departments concerned” including higher education, PWD and DTTDC, to “withhold funds” for colleges and projects related to them “unless explicit instructions are issued to the contrary”, said the report.

Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had alleged that the University administration was under the pressure from the central government and therefore, was deliberately not constitutiing governing bodies of 28 colleges which are fully or partially aided by the Delhi government. However, from the University administration, it was said that they have not received any written communication from the Delhi government on this. Asked by The Indian Express, Devesh Sinha, Dean of Colleges, said they have not received any letter but said that it will take a just few days in constituting the governing bodies.