Even by by the standards of the scam-ridden Gujarat University, this one is the mother of all. For the past 26 years, GU has been paying, on an average, an overtime of Rs 1 lakh per month to the 25 employees of its printing press that stopped functioning in 1977. This is over and above the Rs 1.5 lakh per month paid as salary to them. Overtime rates are double the regular salary.The last time question papers were printed at the press was in 1977. Since then, the machinery—four letter press machines purchased in 1955—have been lying rusting. Sources in the university confirm that all its printing work, including question papers, enrolment forms, covers and even letter pads, is done at a private press.When contacted, Vice-Chancellor A.U. Patel said the matter would be taken up and a thorough investigation conducted. B.J. Pandya, president of the General Employees’ Union, was not available for comment.The GU press has one manager, two head clerks, 12 helpers and 10 technical staff. The only working machine is a photocopier. But that seems to have been put to good use, with the 25 staff members doing long hours of ‘‘overtime’’ on it.With printing work at a standstill, the main work done at the press is taking photocopies of the laser printouts of GU Medical Faculty question papers. Sources say that for each Medical Faculty paper, the press staff had to maximum take 200 photocopies as the number of MBBS students is limited. However, the job that would normally take an hour for most was recorded as having taken the staff members 36 hours, for each subect, due to ‘‘security’’. Minus eight hours of regular duty, that means 24 hours of overtime for each employee for each subject question paper. The state of the printing press, with broken furniture, dirty walls and a damaged board, is revealing. It was closed down in the ’70s after reports of leaking of question papers. Once the printing of papers began outside, point out officials, it was just a matter before all other work like printing of forms and other stationery items was also given to private parties.Now GU has drawn up an ambitious plan to acquire an offset printing machine with plate makers. There is also plan to construct a boundary wall. Sources said GU would recruit 25 more staff for the press and all printing work—question papers to stationeries—would be done here. Even Vice-Chancellor Patel agrees on the benefits. ‘‘Once the press is modernised, GU will save over Rs 1 crore per year,’’ he says.
