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Charu Chhibber
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 27
Coming down heavily on the Central Government, former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today accused of it being insensitive to students’ emotions.
He said: “The government remains intransigent in declining the university’s small deficit, forcing the Vice-Chancellor and other senior officials of the university to go “running around with a begging bowl before the government and the UGC. And, this prestigious university continues to suffer and ominous uncertainty continues to stare it in the face.”
Bansal, who is an alumnus of Panjab University, was part of the PU core committee of senators that held a meeting in the Vice-Chancellor’s office today.
The former minister has always maintained that he is deeply attached to the university, both as an alumnus as well as a city resident.
“Recently, Panjab University was arm-twisted by officials of the Government of India and the UGC to hike fee. For many courses, the scale of fee hike was as high as 1,050 per cent,” he said.
The former minister added: “Even if we cursorily look at the Consumer Price Index of 2001-2002 and the PU fee prevalent then, we cannot fail to notice that while the CPI has since risen less than three times from 406 to 1125, the increase in fee has been exponential, ranging from 14 to mind boggling 48 times. “Incredible? No, it’s true,” he remarked.
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