Faridkot Medical College decries for Rs 5 crore funds stuck with Bank

Faridkot: The Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital(GGSMCH), that comes under the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), has been granted 45 new post-graduate (PG) course seats in different departments for this academic session and is making earnest attempts at up gradation of both faculty and college infrastructure. However, in the face of a paucity of funds to create the required infrastructure for these additional seats, the college authorities and the university are trying to retrieve more than Rs. 5 crores lying dormant in Punjab and Sind Bank accounts.

Tribune reports that with the Punjab and Sind Bank showing reluctance in giving the authorities a listening ear over the release of the accumulated Rs. 5 crore, Rs 85.39 lakh in the last over 44-year-old fixed deposits (FD) and saving accounts in the bank, the university has already moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue.

The Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot was being run by the educational trust in those years.1978, saw GGSMC transferred to the state government by passing an Act, the Punjab Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot (acquisition and miscellaneous) Act, 1978.

As per the Act, all properties, assets, rights, powers, and authorities, as well as cash balances and reserve funds of the trust, were taken over by the state government.

Fixed deposits of more than Rs 74 lakh and deposits of Rs 11 lakh in savings accounts were made at the Punjab and Sind Bank branches in New Delhi, Chandigarh, and Faridkot from 1973-1982.

Some opposition did come forth from a few members of the trust who contested their rights over the properties and assets. The High Court and State government, however, set aside their claims in 1997, 2006.

It was during this period that GGSMC with all its assets and liabilities was transferred by the state government to BFUHS on October 31, 2006.

According to the Vice-Chancellor, BFUHS. Dr Raj Bahadur, it has been 11 years now since the university has been asking the bank authorities to transfer all amount in the FDs and saving accounts in the name of the medical university; but to avail. The bank’s ground being that these deposits are not traceable.

These deposits were made for the promotional purposes of the institution and now, when these deposits have multiplied to become crores several on the basis of year-to-year maturity of FDs and interest on savings accounts, the bank is refusing release, the Vice-Chancellor added.

A December 5 letter by the assistant general manager of the bank conveyed to the medical university that bank scrutiny for these deposits had yielded no results and no such amount in the name of the Guru Gobind Singh Educational Trust was found lying in the bank.

The university authorities, however, claim to have given details of the FDs, and saving accounts (four in Faridkot, two each in Chandigarh and Delhi branches of the bank) to the bank authorities..

“As the bank authorities are not in a mood to give a hearing to our request to release the funds, they are denying having any such deposit. We have been constrained to file a writ petition in the High Court demanding from the court to issue orders to the bank to release Rs 85,39,304 along with interest accrued in the past over 44 years,” the Vice-Chancellor told the Tribune.