SRINAGAR: The administration at Kashmir University (KU) is on a “spree” of buying high-end luxurious SUVs for its top officials, at the expense of the varsity exchequer, which is “misappropriation of funds,” teachers and officials both say. The administration says that the top officials need the vehicles “to visit far-off campuses”.
One high-end SUV worth over Rs 17.5 lakh has been kept at the disposal of the incumbent Vice Chancellor’s wife at the VC Secretariat, even though she is not entitled to such perks, officials say.
The diesel variant Toyota Crysta was bought by the KU administration in April 2019, nine months after Prof Talat was appointed vice chancellor, official records accessed by Kashmir Reader reveal. Prof Talat assumed charge in August 2018.
The vehicle was bought barely two years after the former VC, Prof Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, bought for himself a Toyota Fortuner worth Rs 25 lakh even though the VC Secretariat already had a Tata Safari and Innova Optra, besides two gypsies for security personnel.
The current Prof Talat administration has also bought two high end SUVs for two top officials and also allotted vehicles to officials “who are not entitled to them, ” sources say.
Apart from the high cost of the vehicles, the maintenance cost of them also runs into lakhs, officials say, further bleeding the university exchequer.
Official records accessed by Kashmir Reader reveal that the fuel and lubricant expenditure on the varsity vehicles alone amounted to over Rs 4.5 lakh for a single month in 2019. The expenditure is bound to have surged even higher as on date.
“What is the need of squandering lakhs of rupees on high-end cars when we have more than sufficient vehicles on the campus?” asked a teacher.
The “unjustifiable” expenditures by the KU administration have been termed as “misappropriation of funds and burden on the varsity exchequer” by teachers. They said that the administration should have used it for setting up physical infrastructure for the students.
Students at the varsity called the expenditure on high-end vehicles “shocking and misappropriation of funds”. They said KU is “one of the most expensive government universities across India only because of lack of accountability and transparency”.
“We were expecting some respite in the fees, but this is where the students’ hard earned money goes at KU,” a student, requesting anonymity, remarked.
The students further said that the KU administration “draws pleasure from our suffering”.
“Instead of buying such luxurious vehicles, they should have focused on academics and research,” a student said.
Registrar KU, Prof Nisar A Mir, when asked for his comments on the matter, said that the officials needed the vehicles “for visiting the far-off campuses”, without saying whether buying the vehicles was under norms or not.

Irshad Khan