Crisis looms for KTU with finance committee meeting adjourned due to lack of quorum

The APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University is staring at a deep financial crisis, with a meeting of its Finance Committee convened to approve the annual budget being adjourned due to lack of quorum on Wednesday.

The meeting, called by Vice-Chancellor in-charge M. Sivaprasad, was crucial for the passage of the budget. However, out of the 14-member committee that comprises university officials, elected members from the Syndicate and the Board of Governors (BoG), and representatives from the Finance and Higher Education departments, only four members were present. These included the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Finance Officer, and a BoG member.

What the rules mandate

The university regulations mandate that at least five members be present to meet the quorum requirement. The abstention of the members is seen as part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s ongoing tiff with the Vice-Chancellor. A special meeting of the BoG convened by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar in May too was adjourned for similar reasons as State-nominated officials and MLAs stayed away.

Faced with the tricky situation, the Vice-Chancellor is likely to convene a special meeting of the Syndicate on August 13 to break the deadlock. The approval of the draft budget would have enabled the Vice-Chancellor to convene Syndicate and BoG meetings to pass the full budget. However, the present circumstances has resulted in a disruption of the university’s financial transactions, leading to a near-complete standstill of its daily operations.

Pending payments

A software company that receives around ₹1 crore per month from the university has not been remunerated for two months. Besides, the licence fee to Amazon Cloud, which provides the cloud server for the university’s governance platform, is also pending. Payments to internet service providers including BSNL and K-FON are also overdue, sources point out.

The financial paralysis has begun to affect core functions including examinations, result declarations and the BTech admission process, all of which rely on digital platforms. Even the dispatch of degree certificates, currently handled via India Post, is under threat due to unpaid postal bills.