SRINAGAR: PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has criticised the sustained reduction in funds to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) in Pir Panjal, warning that the institution is being pushed towards managed decline through systematic neglect.
Official figures show that capital funding for the university fell from Rs 703.88 lakh in 2021–22 to Rs 422.98 lakh in 2022–23, Rs 183.11 lakh in 2023–24, and just Rs 44.00 lakh in 2024–25. Although the 2025–26 allocation increased marginally to Rs 187.00 lakh, Mehbooba Mufti said it is insufficient to address the damage caused by years of underfunding.
“The repeated curtailment of funds is steadily hollowing out the university’s academic capacity, research ecosystem, and infrastructure. Weakening institutions through neglect is as damaging as shutting them down,” she stated, emphasising that BGSBU was established to uplift a historically marginalised and strategically important region through access to higher education.
Mehbooba Mufti urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to acknowledge the funding depletion and reverse the trend in the upcoming budget, cautioning that continued neglect could cause irreparable damage to one of Pir Panjal’s key educational institutions.
In a post on X, she added: “Deeply troubling to see the steady depletion of funds to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Pir Panjal. From over Rs 700–800 lakh in 2020–22 to a shocking Rs 44 lakh in 2024–25, this is not fiscal tightening, it is institutional abandonment. BGSBU was founded to uplift a marginalised region. Starving it of funds betrays that vision and must be urgently corrected.”
