Unmindful of the serious corruption charges being levelled against it from various quarters including contractors, the Karnataka government is now brazenly trying to usurp Rs 1,500 crore lying in the kitty of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) under the guise of providing better healthcare facilities in the state. Relying on a provision under the RGUHS Act that empowers the state to issue directions from time to time on the management of the university’s finances which shall be final, Health Minister K Sudhakar has written to the Medical Education Department to bring in an amendment in the ongoing winter session of the legislature in case of any impediment in utilising these funds by the government. The intent of the said provision is not to permit the government to have unbridled access to the University’s finances and divert them for purposes other than what they are meant for, but only to ensure better utilisation and management. The RGUHS was incorporated “for the purpose of ensuring proper and systematic instruction, teaching, training and research in modern medicine and Indian system of medicine”. As such, the University is concerned with providing education and not with creating healthcare facilities in the state, which is the responsibility of the government.
Attempts to replace the Vice-chancellor with the Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) as the Chairman of the Finance Committee speaks volumes of the government’s sinister design. While giving politicians a free run over the huge funds, this will also hit at the very root of the University’s autonomy. The University has mobilised its funds over the years through fees from students and affiliating colleges with no contribution from the government. Though the University was set up in 1996, it does not have a campus of its own. The amount that it has saved should be invested in setting up a permanent campus with world-class infrastructure, conducting medical research and improving the quality of education in general. The government should find its own means to strengthen the healthcare system instead of dipping into the University’s funds.
Governor Taawarchand Gehlot who is also the Chancellor of universities should intervene and counsel the government against going ahead with this misadventure which will only weaken RGUHS financially and defeat the very object for which it was set up. Considering that the University has been mired in various controversies including financial mismanagement in the past, there is nothing wrong with the government exercising oversight, but appropriating funds that rightfully belong to RGUHS is simply not acceptable.