Multiple social media posts are viral with a claim that Aligarh Muslim University has received significantly less funding. Many Internet users who shared the claim said that the budgeted funding for AMU was cut from Rs 62 crores to Rs 9 crores.
The claims are being made after a news web portal, the Wire published a story in which it talked about the cutting of funds of three central universities namely, Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh Muslim University, Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia, and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
A Twitter post with a similar claim is viral now. The post stated in Hindi, “The Central Government reduced the annual budget of Aligarh Muslim University from 62 crores to 9 crores. The atmosphere of mourning among the opposition…. Jai Ho Modi Sarkar”. View more here
Source: Screenshot/ Twitter
The claims are not just limited to Twitter. Even on Facebook such claims are made and shared by the netizens. A Facebook post shared by the news portal — mypradesh.com in Hindi reads, “District and City units of Minority Congress sent a four-point memorandum to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from across the state against the reduction of AMU’s budget to 9 crores from 62 crores.”
Source: Facebook
Source: Screenshot/Facebook
FactO Check:
We verified that the viral claim of AMU’s budget reduction to 9 crores from 62 crores is misleading.
We traced back to the report by the Wire and found that there was a 15% reduction in AMU’s and JMI’s budget. But it never mentioned the amount of 9 crores and 62 crores for the AMU budget.
The report titled, ‘Funds to JMI, AMU Reduced Sharply; Budget for BHU Doubled’ says that funding for Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia was drastically reduced in the most recent fiscal year, 2021–22. The report quoted the Ministry of Education’s response to Loksabha on July 18.
The ministry was replying to the question from Congress MP T. N. Prathapan and apprised the Loksabha that despite an overall rise from Rs 673.98 crore in 2014–15, the allocation had significantly decreased from Rs 1,520.10 crore in 2020–21 to Rs 1,214.63 crore in 2021–22, a drop of Rs 306 crore. According to the response, the first-quarter allocation for the current fiscal year was Rs. 302.32 crores.
We also contacted AMU’s ex-public Relations Officer Rahat Abrar who told us that no such reduction has been made by the central government.
Upon going through the varsity’s website we also found a press release that states, “the higher authorities of the university have approached the concerned officials and that the university has been pursuing the matter vigorously for a considerable period of time and the matter is under consideration.”
“The budget of most universities was cut during Covid 19 lockdown as educational institutions were closed and only online classes were conducted”, the PR added.
We also went through the response by the Ministry of Education in Loksabha which further refute the viral claim. Upon being asked, whether the Government has received any complaints against AMU for not implementing the reservation roaster and if so, the details thereof along with the action taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard? the ministry gave details of annual budget allocation to Aligarh Muslim University from the financial year 2016-17 to 2020-21.
image source: Loksabha
Conclusion:
The budget of the Aligarh Muslim University has been cut down but not to the extent as being claimed.