Chandigarh :A batch of five persons, namely. Prof. Rajan Gaur, Vice President PUTA, Dr E. Nahar, and Dr Jatinder Grover from DCS, Dr Ashok Kumar, department of Hindi and Mr Ravi Shankar Chaube from Geology department sat on the fast on the second day of the Chain Fast at the call given by Joint Action Committee. A large number of teachers and students visited the venue of Chain Fast in front of the University Guest House. Addressing the assembly of
teachers and students Prof. Manjit Singh, Secretary PUTA said, that P.U. was established in 1882 as one among the four federal Universities of India, and Panjab University was the only university to have been assigned the job of teaching and research; the rest three were of examining nature only. Punjab Government should take pride in demanding the status of “institute of national importance” for P.U. from the MHRD at par with Aligarh Muslim University, Benaras Hindu University and Delhi University instead of creating fuss by linking higher education with the political status of U.T. The central university status for P.U. will elevate the status of all the affiliated colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh, whose number has gone up to 175, clarified Prof. Singh. He further clarified that there are already many central universities in India with affiliated colleges on the existing pattern of P.U. and the graduates from affiliated colleges will have much better rating in the global market in education.
Prof Rajan Gaur, Vice President of PUTA said that if the central university status is not accorded to P.U. at this juncture, this institute of national importance would soon become a history for want of desired funds. Already a large number of young teachers have left P.U. for other institutes of national repute and if this trend continues the day is not far away when best students will start avoiding joining this premier institute. It would be a matter of national shame if the P.U., that has produced Noble laureates like Abdus Salaam, and Hargovind Khurana, and has two Prime Ministers – Shri Inder Kumar Gujral and Manmohan Singh- as its alumni, is allowed to die a slow death.
It has also been resolved that JAC would keep on intensifying struggle, in one or the other forms, till the demand for central status is conceded. In the meanwhile representatives of JAC are trying to hold meetings with the Punjab Government as also the Ministry of Human Resource Development at New Delhi.