Fund-Starved UP Vet University Shows BJP's Love for Deendayal Upadhyay is Limited to a Name

New Delhi: How deep does the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) love for their icon Deendayal Upadhyay run? Only skin deep, going by the sorry plight of a veterinary college-turned-university in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

In 2001, with a view to honouring Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyay, the then Chief Minister of UP, Rajnath Singh, had transformed a college to a university in the name of 'Deendayal Upadhyaya'. This was done in the presence of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. For the first time since Independence, the university introduced veterinary science and cattle research courses in the state. However, since then, the university has been running into rough times.

In the name of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, this prestigious institution has been craving for resources since the past 18 years.

Owing to the lack of infrastructure, shortage of faculty members, poor admission, funds crunch and poor placements, the university has from the current academics session, discontinued some courses in various streams.

Explaining the problems being faced by the university, a professor, on the condition of anonymity, told Newsclick, "First this college was a veterinary college in Mathura, affiliated to the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur. Later, in 2001, it got university status when BJP leader Rajnath Singh was Chief Minister.”

He said at present, three colleges run under this university. “The College of Veterinary Science is running smoothly since the beginning, but there is no permanent staff in the College of Biotechnology, as this course is a self-financed one,” he said, adding that “four years ago, the government has started a diploma course in para-veterinary science, which included a Livestock Extension Officer (LEO) and veterinary pharmacist. In this course, we are facing tough challenges as there is no permanent faculty. A few temporary teachers are running this course.”

Citing other problems, the professor said after completion of these courses, students were not getting government jobs. He blamed lack of infrastructure and funds crunch as key reasons for the ‘ailing’ condition of the university.

He said another department, on fisheries science, started nearly seven years back ago but was not functioning now due to lack of faculty.

"The college of agro business management department is facing similar problems. Everything, including infrastructure and the building, is ready but since the past eight-nine years, the department has not started functioning due to lack of permanent faculty. Another issue is that the university has 1,400 square feet land but it is barren," he added.

Incidentally, when UP Chief Minister Adityanath visited the university last year, the staff had raised the issue of fund crunch and lack of faculty and he had assured them that the problems would be sorted out at the earliest, but in vain.

BJP's ‘Name Changing’ Politics

When asked, Pradeep Mathur, a four-term MLA from Mathura Vrindavan constituency, told Newsclick, "In 1947, this veterinary college was established and was one of the well-known colleges running veterinary courses in the country. It has given the country several veterinary doctors and surgeons.”

Mathur said he became an MLA in 1985 and in 1988, he decided that this college should become a university and prepared the required papers. “When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister, he gave approval to the proposal. In 2001, this veterinary college was converted into a university. We were expecting that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Mathura, he would surely announce some funds for the university and convert this state university into a Central one," he added.

On September 11, Modi visited the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Veterinary Science University and Cattle Research Institute in Mathura to launch the National Animal Disease Control Programme, which aims to control foot-and-mouth disease and tuberculosis among livestock, but the PM did not utter a single word either on according the university central status or on giving it funds.

"They (Modi and Adityanath) are people who only believe in announcements, not execution,” said Mathur, who belongs to the Congress. He flayed both the BJP-led Central and state governments, “who love to change the names of institutions, including a railway station, in the name of Deendayal Upadhyaya and always refer him in speeches but do not care to provide funds for various courses in the university because of which the students are suffering.”

In fact, many such courses have been discontinued and many more buildings are lying abandoned in a state of incompletion in Uttar Pradesh, Mathur claimed.

“There is 1,400 acre land (Madhuri Kunj farm), which is the property of the university, has not been in use since many years whereas it could have been used for veterinary purposes,” he said, adding that “ if they are so concerned about Deendayal Upadhyaya, why don't they release funds for the university? Why have new courses not been started? Why have teachers not been employed despite former UP governor Ram Naik being the chief guest every year at the university’s convocation?" he said.

Incidentally, the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) governments constructed buildings for four new colleges but no one has cared to fulfill the need for resources, including teachers. The university is running on only one college. It was expected that the Adityanath government would give the university its original form, as two years ago, during the unveiling of the statue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya at the Veterinary University, he had announced two colleges, which have not been started yet.

Newsclick approached the Vice-Chancellor of the university, G.K Singh, to know the ground reality. Singh admitted that a few courses that were supposed to start in the last academic session had not taken off as yet. "There are two colleges, a college of fishery science and a college of dairy science, that have not started yet. But we have got sanction for the fishery college that will be started from the next academic session. We have been given assurance for the dairy science college also", he said.

On students not getting government jobs, Singh said, "Yes, since the last few years, advertisements for government jobs are not coming out, but the minister concerned has assured us that he will fix it soon."