Generate funds, UGC chief tells PU

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 28

“Panjab University is a prestigious institution and has a large number of areas which it can explore to generate revenue to deal with the financial crisis,” the UGC Chairman, Prof Ved Prakash, told this correspondent today.

He was in the city to inaugurate a conference at the NITTTR, Sector 26, regarding the CEC-UGC documentary film festival, “Prakriti”.

“Why can’t Panjab University mobilise its resources to generate income,” he said when asked about any additional grant to the university in view of its deficit.

He said the UGC had already released the pending grant to the university and for the remaining deficit, the university would have to generate revenue.

A delegation of the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA), along with a Senator, met Prof Ved Prakash to submit a memorandum demanding that the deficit of the university should be met by the HRD Ministry and the UGC. He advised them: “You people should help the university find ways of generating resources.”

He asked them to explore resource generation by collaborating with the industry. He asked them to focus on the curriculum and research for the betterment of the campus.

In the memorandum, PUTA demanded that the funds for the pension scheme should be provided by the HRD Ministry as per the recommendations of a fact-finding committee set up by the ministry after being told to do so by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2010.

He asked the delegation to brief him about “constructive works” going on in the university. The faculty informed him about the implementation of the choice-based credit system, which the university had implemented.