No fee concession for PU employees’ wards

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 28

A Panjab University (PU) committee has decided that a clause should be added in the information handbook of Panjab University (PU) that no fee concession should be admissible to the students who are the wards of employees admitted under ‘industry sponsored’ category.

The committee under Senator Prof Pam Rajput was formed as there was a complaint against fee concession given to Gaurav Rattan in the Dr SS Bhatnagar University Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, who was admitted in 2001.

He is the son of Prof VK Rattan from the same institute.

A Mohali resident, Balwinder Singh, had made the complaint. Chief Vigilance Officer Prof Meenakshi Malhotra had also investigated the complaint but recommended formation of a committee to look into it. She was of the view that there could be some other cases which might have availed similar concession.

However, when Rajput’s committee sought information about similar cases, no information was provided. Though, sources told that top functionaries had availed fee concession for their wards in the past when admitted under ‘industry sponsored seats’.

The committee members, in their findings dated August 14, noted that the scheme of fee concession for the wards of university employees admitted under the category of Foreign/NRI/NRI sponsored seats was introduced in 1997 as per the decision of the Syndicate on August 23, 1997.

Thereafter, in 2000, the Syndicate approved the inclusion of another category, namely ‘industry sponsored’, in the existing category of Foreign/NRI/NRI sponsored seats vide Syndicate decision dated April 30, 2000. It was also approved that the fee equal to Foreign/NRI/NRI sponsored seats shall be charged from the students admitted under the ‘industry sponsored’ category.

“The members further discussed that although, the fee of ‘industry sponsored’ candidates was to be the same as was fixed for the foreign/ NRI/ NRI sponsored category but it was nowhere specifically mentioned that the fee concession available to the wards admitted under Foreign/ NRI/ NRI sponsored category would also be available to the ‘industry sponsored’ students,” said the minutes of meeting.

They added, “However, it is a fact that in the case under consideration, the ward of the university teacher, who was admitted under ‘industry sponsored’ category, had claimed the benefit of concession which was neither objected to by the department concerned nor by the fee checking section.”

It concluded that such cases shouldn’t recur in future and a clause in this regard be added in the information handbook of the university.

“We didn’t know then as a parent. Whatever the fee was asked for, we paid that. It is unfair to raise the issue after more than 15 years,” said prof VK Rattan.

He added, “The fee section should have raised the point. We are unnecessarily being harassed.”

The case 

The committee under Senator Prof Pam Rajput was formed as there was a complaint against fee concession given to Gaurav Rattan in the Dr SS Bhatnagar University Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, who was admitted in 2001.