JNU turning out to be a Bihari bastion, cribs CAG

July 2, 2011, New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University, set up as a centre for academic excellence for the whole country, mainly caters to students from UP and Bihar. This has come out in the draft performance audit report of Comptroller & Auditor General that also found JNU having diverted Rs 6.29 crore, allocated under Infrastructure Development Fund for OBC reservation, to pay electricity/water charges.

The government auditor said JNU had failed to maintain an "all-India character by having on its rolls a fair representation of students from different regions of the country". While domination of students from Bihar and UP in JNU is well known, the sheer numbers has come as a surprise. CAG said JNU was popular only in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from where 10,000 applications were received every year while less than 1,000 applications were received from 17 to 20 states.

This includes Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and all the north-eastern states. CAG also pointed out irregular appointments "defeating the purpose of open recruitment", shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff and JNU's failure to maintain its pan-India character.