Patiala, March 10
The Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, who only two days, earlier had asked the Pro-Vice-Chancellor not to take any action without his prior approval, today in a clever move made the Pro-VC and other varsity officials responsible for maintaining law and order in the institution in the face of a dharna and rally scheduled for March 11 besides other programmes announced by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) which is agitating for his ouster.
The JAC, comprising a section of the Punjabi University Teachers Association (PUTA) as well as employee associations and student organisations, had given a call for a dharna in front of the VC’s office for tomorrow, besides announcing that they would hold a continuous dharna on the spot till the VC was ousted.
Varsity Deputy Registrar today conveyed the orders to the Pro-VC, Dr R.N. Pal, the Registrar, Dr B.S. Bhatia, and the Dean, Academic Affairs, on behalf of the VC. The orders said the three officials should take all preventive measures to deal with the situation in the university arising out of the threat of the dharna and rally on March 11, including closure of the varsity.
The orders said the officials could take an appropriate decision jointly and also associate the Chief Security Officer while taking the decision.
The Vice-Chancellor, through yet another order which was conveyed to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Controller, Examinations, also gave the three officials powers to take appropriate decisions on examinations matters.
Sources said the recent directives were a clever attempt by Dr Ahluwalia to put the responsibility of taking action against agitating members of the JAC on the shoulders of the Pro-VC.
