Fellows, PUTA upset over postponement of elections

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 26

The Panjab University authorities are likely to deal with a series of protests in the coming weeks as both Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) and senators are upset over postponement of their respective elections.

“This is not something usual that happened in the PU. The Senate and PUTA elections are believed to be the most important event of this institution. Student elections are nowhere near sight and the authorities must prepare themselves to face the harsh criticism in the coming weeks,” said one of the senators.

A faculty member said, “The step clearly indicates that the authorities have not used their powers properly in the past. The House members or PUTA moved the court. They actually took the matter via media and started blaming each other. There has not been a single word about the academic loss by any of these men in power.”

Surprisingly, the House meeting was also not called. Many believe that the House was not called as the Syndics would take up the matter of conducing elections. “The meeting should have been called to discuss various issues pertaining to students and the PU. However, everyone wants to press the authorities for conducting elections of PUTA and the Syndicate. The clause of making a board of directors in the New Education Policy is also a concern for many. Fearing its implementation, anytime sooner or later, those in the fray wanted to get over with the election process,” said a source.

‘Lack of governance’

Dr Harpreet Singh Dua, Fellow and Syndic, wrote a letter to the PU VC demanding to conduct meetings to discuss various issues. In his letter, Dua said, “University/colleges/teaching/non-teaching staff/students (all stakeholders) are facing a tough time. The university was unable to conduct entrance tests for the 2020-2021 session. The admission schedule was much delayed. Colleges have not been provided with the proper set of guidelines. Teachers are being forcibly relieved/not getting salaries/their teaching subjects are being discontinued and they are facing so many other issues. This is due to the lack of governance as no proper meetings of the Senate and the Syndicate were held.”