West Bengal demands to see bank statements of aided colleges; institutions see move as blow to autonomy

West Bengal has asked all State Government-aided colleges — about 450 of them — to provide their bank account and fixed deposit details, a move that has not gone down well with those institutions which fear that their money will now be taken away.

“The Finance Department has introduced Fund Information System (FIS) portal from financial year 2025-26 and it is mandatory to provide bank account details and FD details to get any financial assistance from the State Government,” said a communication from the Department of Higher Education circulated earlier this week.

The colleges are not uncomfortable with the tone of the letter, that sharing account details was necessary in order to receive financial assistance from the State Government, something that they feel is an attack on their autonomy.

“The State Government is reducing the funds for education in all sectors. Recruitment of teachers has been halted. Research funds are crunched. Universities are autonomous bodies that have raised resources for a long time through their research, advocacy and industry-institute partnership programmes. This move is just to siphon off these resources to the government for no reason. This is an attack on financial and academic autonomy of state educational institutions. This will further deprive the students, who are already suffering from delayed admission and lack of funds,” said Ishita Mukhopadhyay, a well-known professor of economics at the University of Calcutta, adding that several teachers’ associations had already expressed their anger against the move.

An Associate Orofessor with a Kolkata college who did not want to be identified said: “The State Government is already taking half of the total tuition fees collected in a year. This notification makes us believe that the corpus fund of colleges in form of fixed deposits and bank balances can be taken away by. The colleges need such funds for various development projects like construction of new buildings, renovation and repair, extensions of existing buildings, conduct of events, particularly when the UGC hardly extends any financial help like it did before till the 12th Plan.”