Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann writes to Jagdeep Dhankhar, seeks immediate conduct of Senate poll
Amid the ongoing protest by students and Senators against the delay in holding election to Senate, the Panjab University’s governing body, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has sought the intervention of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is also the Chancellor of the university, for immediately conducting the poll.
The letter to the Chancellor, posted on CM Mann’s X handle, stated since the university was set up, its Senate was constituted after every four years, with the members elected through a democratic process. Strangely, the elections to the Senate have not been conducted this year, though over the past six decades these were held regularly in the months of August and September of the relevant year.
The CM said reports suggesting that the democratic election process might be replaced by nominations are adding fuel to fire, as such an alteration would undermine the university’s democratic ethos and diminish the voice of the graduate electorate, which has always played a critical role in the governance of the institution.
In the letter, CM Mann said non-declaration of the Senate elections despite its term coming to an end on October 31 is a highly emotive issue for the state. The university was constituted under the Punjab University Act, 1947 (Act VII of 1947) and was established to compensate the State of Punjab for the loss of its main university in Lahore subsequent to the Partition. After the bifurcation of the state in 1966, the Punjab Reorganisation Act 1966 maintained its status, meaning thereby that the university continued to function as it was and its jurisdiction over the areas that were comprised in the present State of Punjab continued as such.
Mann said that the failure to conduct elections to the Senate, has not only disenchanted stakeholders but is also against the canons of any good governance and the law.
He said there was a substantial resentment among teachers, professionals, technical members, graduates of the university and representatives of various constituencies for the delay.
