Students, PAU authorities break the ice

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 12

Finally, BSc (agriculture) third year students and authorities of the College of Agriculture at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have reached a consensus to put an end to almost two week protest.

Students have agreed to attend two month training workshop in two batches. Moreover, when one group will be on field programme the other group will head for summer vacation.

Students were on warpath with authorities from May 31 as they were not allowed to appear in exams after they skipped their training programme.

Agitiating students had alleged that the authorities deliberately changed training programme. Training period in seventh semester is known as Elective Training Learning Programme (ETLP) under which a student has to study an elective subject for six months and then training is given for the same subject.

Instead of ETLP, the authorities had asked students to go for Rural Area Work Experience (RAWE) wherein a student has to work in a village for two months.

Shivpartap Singh, a student said, “Entire class has been divided in two groups. One group would go on training from June 13 to August 12 and the second group would head for training from August 13 to October 13.”

Dr SS Kukal, dean, College of Agriculture said, “Students have been divided in two groups so that nobody has to suffer or miss coaching for competitive exams.”