Court tells govt to take call on VC of Maharaja Ranjit Singh PTU in 6 weeks

Chandigarh, May 2

The delay on part of the state government to appoint a VC of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh PTU, Bathinda, has forced a senior faculty member to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court. For the last six months, the technical university has been without a VC.

Saying that the delay in giving charge to a new VC was badly affecting the functioning of the technical university, be it the meeting of the academic council or the finance committee meetings, the Dean, faculty of sciences, Dr Sandeep Kansal, while citing his seniority has moved the court. Following this, the latter has given six-week time to the state government to appoint a VC.

Acting on the court direction, the department has sent the file to the state government to decide upon the appointment of an officiating VC or set up a three-member committee to look after the responsibilities of the VC.

The file pertaining to the appointment of the VC is stuck at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). After the tenure of the last VC, Prof Buta Singh, ended on November 1, Chancellor of the PTU Governor Banwarilal Purohit had asked for the appointment of the senior-most dean (faculty) as the officiating VC. The Governor had also turned down the recommendation of the state government to appoint the Secretary, Technical Education, as the officiating VC.

In December last year, Director, Technical Education, had made the recommendation regarding the appointment of the officiating VC and the same was approved by the Technical Education Minister Harjot Bains before sending it to the CMO.

Besides, students of far-flung areas are also suffering because the Maharaja Ranjit Singh PTU is the affiliating university for colleges spread over almost half of the state.