M A I N   N E W S

PTU Vice-Chancellor submits resignation?
P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25
The Punjab Technical University (PTU) Vice-Chancellor, Prof Y.S. Rajan, is believed to have submitted his resignation and requested to be relieved by February 27. The government is likely to forward the VC’s request to the Governor, Justice O P Verma, who is also the PTU Chancellor.

Prof Rajan has also desired to quit as Scientific Adviser to the state government. Despite repeated attempts Prof Rajan could not be contacted.

He had taken over as Vice-Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the PTU on October 27, 2002.

Sources told The Tribune today that there was an emergency meeting of the Board of Governors here yesterday, where a confidential note circulated by Prof Rajan among all members, besides some recent correspondence between PTU and the state government, on the implementation of the 24-credit rule taken by the Council of Ministers on February 4, formed part of the agenda.

The board, sources said, was unanimous in “expressing concern over the state government taking a decision to implement the 24-credit rule, a step it had no statutory power to take.

It is also reliably learnt that the Minister of Technical Education, Mr Mohinder Singh Kaypee, and Prof Rajan were not pulling along well over several academic matters. Sources said the immediate flashpoint for the emergency meeting was the strike and violence by B.Tech students of the 2001 batch. They were demanding permission to continue their studies in the sixth semester, based on their having earned 24-credits for the first two semesters.

The students were also demanding that there should be no detention for shortage in attendance. Another point was that the “mercy chance” be allowed even to those students, who had failed to earn 24-credits.

The board discussed all aspects of the issue, including the directive of the Council of Ministers and letters from the Directorate of Technical Education. The board concluded that “permitting the students, who had failed to clear their second semester, to continue with their studies was not in the interest of quality technical education PTU was striving for”.

In fact, at least two board members — Prof Prem Vrat, Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and Mr Lakshminarayana, Regional Officer, North-West Committee, All-India Council for Technical Education, submitted written comments on the “confidential” note circulated by Prof Rajan sources said, CII representative, S.K. Bijlani, Industrialist, Chandra Mohan and others supported Prof Rajan, asserting that it was high time PTU learnt to “rule by the rules” and not succumb to “pressures and disturbances”.

While explaining the current problem of students, Prof Rajan said in his confidential note that the university was operating under “most difficult circumstances and one could have recommended the closure of PTU for one year to streamline matters. That would have affected nearly 30,000 students in 98 affiliated colleges and damaged their academic careers as also the image of PTU”.

Prof Rajan had reportedly sent a letter to the Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Mr K.K. Bhatnagar, explaining in detail what steps the university had taken to help students. He is also believed to have asserted that the university was bound by the rules and court orders. Also, the university was unaware of the brief given to the Council of Ministers. Therefore, the final decision would be taken by the board.

Perturbed over gross interference by the government Prof Rajan had been contemplating to quit since November last, said a board member.