Khattar pitches for share in PU

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 13

Amid the trading of charges with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh over the status of Chandigarh, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has now initiated a fresh move for the revival of Haryana’s share in Panjab University (PU),Chandigarh.

Sources said in a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Khattar has offered to provide as much grant as given by Punjab to the university.

“In the past few years, the character and constitution of Chandigarh has changed considerably. A large number of students from Haryana come to Chandigarh to get admission to advanced and professional courses at the PU and other educational institutions. Under these circumstances, the revival of Haryana’s share in the university will help the students’ cause,” Khattar stated in the letter.

Khattar has urged Rajnath Singh that the Home Ministry should issue a notification for the implementation of reservation policies of the Centre as well as the state in the colleges affiliated to the PU in neighbouring districts of Chandigarh.

Khattar also demanded Haryana’s representation in the Senate, Syndicate and Board of Finance of the PU.

Confirming it, Khattar’s media adviser Rajiv Jain said Haryana always had a share in Panjab University, Chandigarh, and even the Punjab and Haryana High Court had given directions that the state should make efforts for the revival of its share in the university.

“The Chief Minister’s letter to the Union Home Minister is to safeguard interests of the youths who want to study at the PU for their better future. The government will plead the case of youths in Haryana with vigour,” said Jain.

This is not for the first time that Haryana has raised the issue of its share in the PU. Earlier, BJP’s Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta had met Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is the Chancellor of the university, in this connection.

The BJP government has been staking claim to it on the basis of Section 72 (3) and (4) of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, that clarifies that all-body corporates such as the PU, PAU and the SGPC, constituted by the central, state or provincial acts, will continue to function and operate in those areas in respect of which they were functioning and operating before the Act.