The JNUSU also said that the administration had decided to stop auto-renewal of several e-journals and subscriptions, which would hamper academics.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union Friday alleged that the annual library funds for the university have been slashed from Rs 8 crore to Rs 1.7 crore by the administration, supposedly because the University Grants Commission (UGC) has refused to release funds.

The decision was announced at the Library Committee Meeting held on Friday at the campus, chaired by Rector I. The JNUSU also said that the administration had decided to stop auto-renewal of several e-journals and subscriptions, which would hamper academics.

“JNU administration said that UGC has stopped funds for library and has asked university to generate internal revenue — a euphemism for privatisation. When members of library and JNUSU representatives raised questions on how such drastic cuts have happened and why the university is not taking measures to ensure funds are available, the Financial Officer said they don’t have the authority to do so as the budgeting format has been changed by UGC, where money is sent for specific heads and inter-transfer of funds from one head to another is not possible,” claimed JNUSU president N Sai Balaji, who was present at the meeting.

“Due to the library fund cut now, the auto renewal of e-journals, e-subscriptions like Jstor, Sage and others are not going to be renewed, meaning a closure of research in JNU from January. Rather than finding ways to keep these subscriptions alive, the Rector, Librarian and others have openly asked the officials to communicate the same to publishers,” he further claimed.

Balaji also claimed that the administration cited the “threat of fire security” to argue that outside books only be allowed in two reading rooms of the library, or that the library be closed between 12pm-6 am.

Asked to respond, Rector I Chintamani Mahapatra said, “Please wait for appropriate data. Blanket statements are not good.” He did not respond to further queries. Librarian Manorama Tripathi and Financial Officer Heeraman Tiwari did not respond to queries.