A viral post doing rounds on social media recently claimed that the centre drastically reduced funds for Aligarh Muslim University from 62 Crores to 9 Crores, an almost seven-fold decrease.
The facebook post read, “अलीगढ़ मुस्लिम यूनिवर्सिटी का वार्षिक बजट 62 करोड़ से घटा कर 9 करोड़ किया गया! मोदी सरकार के इस निर्णय के लिए आभार.”(The annual budget of Aligarh Muslim University was reduced from 62 crores to 9 crores! Thanks for this decision of Modi Govt).
Credits: India Today
Fact check sources confirm that there has been a dip in AMU’s budget allocation. However, the numbers doing rounds on social media are far from the real figures.
अलीगढ़ मुस्लिम यूनिवर्सिटी का वार्षिक बजट 62 करोड़ से घटा कर 9 करोड़ किया गया
विपक्षियों में मातम जारी….. ❗😀— बाबा के तिखे बोल (@AmanVer39721778) July 21, 2022
A report by The Wire on July 19 mentioned that there has been a 15 percent dip in the funding for universities like Aligarh and Jamia Millia Islamia last year. At the same time, funding for JNU(Jawaharlal Nehru University) remained stagnant, whereas funding for BHU(Banaras Hindu University) increased.
As per the report, the Ministry of Education gave these statistics in the Lok Sabha, in response to an unstarred question by Congress MP TN Prathapan on Monday, July 18.
Subsequent searches on the Lok Sabha website revealed official documents produced in the Parliament while answering the Congress MP’s question. The response from education ministry carried a detailed history of the funds allocated to central universities by the Government of India from 2014-15.
Credits: India Today
The reply clarifies that AMU’s annual budget increased each year from 2014-15 when it was Rs 673.98 crore. The aggregate funding peaked in 2020-21 but dipped by about 300 crore rupees the next year. However, the actual figures are way lower than those claimed.
Verdict:
Our fact-check confirms that the budget for AMU decreased in the last year. From a peak of Rs 1520.10 crore allocated in 2020-21, the allocated budget has dropped to Rs 1214.63 in the year 2021-22.
For Q1, the government has allocated Rs. 301.32, similar to BHU’s Rs. 325 crore. Hence this confirms that there was no drastic reduction in AMU’s budget. Furthermore, the figures quoted in the viral post are inaccurate.
References: India Today. The Logical Indian
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