Golden Jubilee Meet of the Commission

Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Science & Technology addressing the historic Golden Jubilee Meeting of the University Grants Commission, on 27th December, at UGC, New Delhi. Dr. K. Venkatasubramanian, Member Planning Commission; Prof. Arun Nigavekar, Chairman, UGC; Shri S.K. Tripathi, Secretary, Higher Education Dept., MHRD; Smt. Kumud Bansal, Additional Secretary, MHRD; Prof. V.N.Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chairman, UGC; Prof. Ved Prakash Secretary, UGC; Commission Members and senior UGC officials were present in the meeting. It is after 50 years that an Education Minister is addressing the Commission's Meeting. The first meeting of the Commission was addressed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Education Minister.

     n order to expedite the settlement 
    of accounts of IX Plan grants, the UGC through its South Eastern Regional Office, Hyderabad, conducted interface meetings with the principals of the colleges located in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Union Territories of Pondicherry and Andaman Nicobar islands. The colleges were requested to submit the audited accounts, expenditure details and building completion documents. The UGC officials verified the documents in order to settle the accounts on the spot so that next instalment of X Plan could be released. Three interface meetings have already been conducted at Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Chennai. 
The first meeting was conducted at P.S.G.College of Arts and

Science at Coimbatore from 16th December to 19th December 2003 for colleges affiliated to Bharthiar University, Bhartidasan University, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and Madurai Kamaraj University. 
The second phase of interface meetings was held from 2nd January to 7th January, 2004 at Osmania University, Hyderabad with the principals of colleges affiliated to Osmania University, Kakatiya University, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Nagarjuna University and Sri Venkateswara University.
The third phase of meetings was held at Chennai and colleges affiliated to Madras University, Pondicherry University, Periyar University, Alagappa University, Thiruvalluvar University and Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Law University 

attended the meeting. Fourth meeting was held at Visakhapatnam on 17-18 January, 2004 which was attended by Dr. R. K. Chauhan, Additional Secretary, UGC. The first three meetings were addressed by Prof. V.N.Rajasekharan Pillai, the Vice Chairman, UGC. On the inaugural day Prof. Pillai interacted with the principals of the colleges and highlighted the importance of various UGC schemes. He further informed that UGC is taking care of fee for NAAC accreditation of the colleges so that more colleges can opt for (NAAC) accreditation. The Vice Chancellors, Registrars and Deans of Colleges also attended the above meeting on the inaugural day. Dr. S.Jelani, Deputy Secretary, SERO, Hyderabad co-ordinated all the meetings.