Other States - Punjab   

Teachers, students demand Central university status for PU

CHANDIGARH: Members of a joint action committee constituted by the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) and the Students’ Council started a chain fast in front of the University Guest House gate on Monday and pitched a tent by the roadside demanding Central university status for Panjab University.

Three teachers -- Sunita Srivastave of the Department of Physics; Keshav Malhotra, Fellow; and Karamjit Singh of the University Business School -- and two students -- Gagandeep Kaur, vice-president of the Students’ Council, and Ravi Kant Negi of the Department of Laws -- sat on fast on the first day, according to PUTA secretary Manjit Singh.

The teachers and students are demanded Central university status so that Panjab University could be pulled out of its current financial crisis.

PUTA president A.S. Ahluwalia clarified that Central status for the university would not mean handing it over to the Union Government.

“In fact, the Union Territory of Chandigarh contributes to the Centre thousands of crores of rupees annually by way of Central taxes and it is absolutely legitimate to ask for a small fraction of the total taxes to be spent on higher education in the UT,” he said.

He asserted that the PGI medical institute in Chandigarh had more than double the budget of Panjab University and it was flushed with funds for research and teaching for the only reason that it was totally funded by the Centre.

Mr. Singh alleged that the Punjab Government, instead of contributing 40 per cent share to the PU budget, had arbitrarily frozen its share to Rs.16 crore and that too had not been released. In the just ended financial year, Punjab released only Rs.14.7 crore, he charged.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Drug peddler escapes from police custody
Teachers, students demand Central university status for PU

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu