M A I N   N E W S

Karnataka PCC chief quits

New Delhi, April 7
In a virtual repeat of the Tehelka episode, Karnataka PCC President V.S. Koujalagi, accused of accepting bribe from a youth to show him a favour and allegedly caught on video tapes during the act, resigned from his post today but maintained that the charges against him were “false and baseless”.

The alleged incident happened in 1998 when Mr Koujalagi was an MLA. He became the PCC chief last year.

Mr Koujalagi sent in his resignation to party President Sonia Gandhi, saying that he had taken the step keeping in view the sentiments expressed by her in the presidential speech at the 81st plenary session in Bangalore last month.

In the letter, he dismissed the charges as false and baseless and said the Lokayukta was investigating the matter and would submit a report soon. “I will fight these charges and I am sure I will be acquitted soon”. PTI 

Charges against VC to be probed
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 7
Punjab Higher Education Minister Master Mohan Lal today said he had directed the Secretary, Higher Education, to hold an inquiry into the allegations of violation of university rules and other irregularities levelled by the Punjabi University Teachers Association (PUTA) against the University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia.

Talking to newsmen after the convocation in the varsity campus, the Higher Education Minister said the allegations levelled by PUTA against the Vice Chancellor were a matter of ‘’concern’’ and he had directed the Secretary, Higher Education, to submit his report in this regard within 15 days.

The teachers association had, in a memorandum to the University Chancellor and the Higher Education Minister, charged Dr Ahluwalia of committing various irregularities, including allotting a house out of the teachers quota to a woman junior proof reader, giving affiliation to privately-owned colleges which did not have the required infrastructure, and changing criterion of admission into B Tech course on the spot to accommodate ineligible candidate.

PUTA, meanwhile, also submitted a similar memorandum to Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. The PUTA president, Dr B S Khaira and the General Secretary, Dr Balwinder Singh, said the Union Minister had been apprised of the situation on the campus.

Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also took up the matter of deliberate delay in releasing the result of its former campus president Sandeep Kapoor with the Union Minister and the state Higher Education Minister. Accordingly the Special Secretary, Higher Education, in a noting on the application of Sandeep Kapoor ordered that his result should be declared and the government should be informed about the same at an early date.

In another release, former state minister and former Syndicate member Prem Gupta today alleged that it was strange that the Vice Chancellor was, himself, admitting to the press that he had not allowed a meeting of Patiala Lok Sabha member Parneet Kaur from being held on the campus in the 1999 parliamentary elections but had allowed a similar meeting of the defeated candidate Surjit Singh Rakha near of the coffee house of the campus.

Meanwhile, in a press note Mr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, has stated that Master Mohan Lal, Minister for Higher Education, Punjab, has no power or jurisdiction to order any such inquiry since university is an autonomous body. “But if the minister does so, his order will be ignored and not cared about at all”, he added.