1 Sep :Today an emergency meeting of PUTA executive was held in the office of PUTA to review the controversies appearing in a section of the press on the letter of concurrence of Punjab Government for the central university status for P.U. The meeting began with the acknowledging of gratitude to all those government officials in Punjab, particularly the Chief Minister of Punjab, who took a historic decision to save Punjab University from the severe financial crunch.
It is underlined that Panjab University already has predominant character of a central university as it is made by the Act of Parliament and its Chancellor is Vice President of India. Also 60 per cent of its finances are borne by the Union Government.
However central funding has not changed its Punjabi character as nearly 70 per cent students are Punjabi and we have department of Guru Nanak Sikh Studies, Sheikh Baba Farid Chair, Guru Ravi Das Chair and a well established Punjabi department. There cannot be better proof of serious concern for Punjab and Punjabi as world Punjabi conference was recently hosted by Panjab University.
In the meeting it was decided to re-assure every parent of the 10 thousand students studying on the campus that the major benefit of the central university is to the students whose annual fee now runs into lakhs of ruppes. The annual fee in JNU, New Delhi, which is a central university, for any course is not more than Rs.400/-. Our research students stands to gain in the form of monthly fellowship of Rs.5000/- which is provided only in central universities.
The PUTA executive has unanimously appealed to all those quarters, that have expressed their reservations/ apprehensions on the central university status to P.U., that it is in the interest of entire region to let central government fund P.U. fully. It is worth reiterating here that the name of the University would remain Panjab University, the representation of Punjab government on different bodies of P.U. would not be diluted and all the 173 colleges from Punjab would continue to be affiliated with P.U. after it is elevated to central university.