PU faculty, staff block road in protest

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 30

Faculty and non-teaching staff members of the Panjab University (PU) today blocked the road for over an hour outside the Administrative Block on the university premises against the University Grants Commission (UGC) for delay in disbursing grant.

The employees demanded that the UGC should regularise the grant disbursed to the PU annually.

Commuters faced inconvenience due to road blockade on the campus.

Deepak Kaushik, president, PU Non-Teaching Staff Association, said the university had a history of generating alumnus who had been excelling in various fields and in fact children of top officials in the Punjab Government were also studying here despite these, the university was facing a fund crunch.

During the protest, the issue of the release of a one-time emergency grant of Rs 140 crore was also raised by employees’ representatives. They said nobody knows the status of the Rs 140 crore grant.

Kaushik said its file had gone to the MHRD but they did not know when the money would be given. The staff demanded that they need a permanent solution to this fiscal crisis.

PUTA president Promila Pathak said uncertainty continues to prevail among university employees every month whether they would get salaries or not.

Meanwhile, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Minister for SC/BC welfare and Forest Department, who was at the university recently during its festival, ‘Jhankar’, had announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh for university students and assured to take the university out of the existing financial crunch. Moreover, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) spokesperson GS Bali, who was the guest of honour at the event, said he would try his best to bring the Punjab Chief Minister to the university soon to start a campaign against drugs from the campus.

Meanwhile, the participation of teachers in the protest was low today.

Issue of Rs 140-crore grant raised 

During the protest, the issue of the release of a one-time emergency grant of Rs 140 crore was also raised by employees’ representatives. They said nobody knows the status of the grant.