JNU admin accused of cancelling subscriptions for journals citing lack of funds

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union has accused the varsity of cancelling subscriptions of important journals citing paucity of funds.

Making the announcement at a press conference, the students body shared documents of the Library Advisory Committee meeting held in November.

Prior to holding the presser, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) said it had got a letter from the administration advising them not to hold the press conference outside the library since such activities within 100 metres of the administration block have been prohibited by the Delhi High Court.

The JNUSU, however, said the press conference was held 800 metres away from the administration block.

It alleged that seven subscriptions were dropped by the varsity. These include EBSCO -International Security and Counterterrorism, Wiley Subject Collection Journal, Nature Journals, Sage Journals, Cambridge Journal, Cell Press Journal and Science Direct, the JNUSU said.

It accused the varsity administration of cutting down library funds from ₹8 crore to ₹1.7 crore.

They also raised questions over the discrepancies found in the funds that are being used for conducting the online entrance examination.

In the AC meeting, the JNU admin claimed that National Testing Agency has agreed after been given contract to conduct JNUEE. Kindly note the date, it's December 7. Similarly for December 12-dated RTI reply regarding conduct of online JNUEE, JNU admins replies in writing that "The information is not available/ cannot be provided at this point of time as bid evaluation is under process," said N Sai Balaji in a Facebook post.

“On Right hand side is the JNU Admin's press statement of 7th December and on RTI hand side RTI Filed to know the name of vendor, price of tender and source of funding for online entrance examination!

The university, however, rubbished the claims.

It said it had been allocating to the library every year an amount of ₹1.70 crore for books and journals from its grant received annually from the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"However, in the year 2012, the UGC gave one time bulk grant to JNU under the 12th Plan for five years from which an extra amount was allocated for the next five years. Now that the 12th plan has ended the library is running with its regular annual grant," the varsity had said earlier.

"At the moment, some of the journals that were freely available through INFLIBNET and paid by the UGC are under review and the situation is expected to be sorted out soon," a varsity official said.

The JNU students union, however, expressed fear that the journals might not be renewed next year.