PTU charges Rs 5,000 for giving grace marks: RTI
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 12
The awarding of four grace marks to enable a student pass an examination in a golden chance scheme has proved to be a goldmine for Punjab Technical University (PTU). It has earned a whopping Rs3.47 crore as fee in the last about four years.
The grace marks are provided if a student needs just four or less marks in one subject only and has passed the remaining. Though a similar scheme is offered by other universities, none reportedly charges any fee.
Based on information procured through the Right to Information Act, a former student of the university, Navdeep Gupta, said as many as 6,958 students paid Rs5,000 each for availing grace marks in the last four years. The sum collected was over Rs3.47 crore.
Dr Amanpreet Singh, Registrar, PTU, said the grace marks were given on the basis of a government notification for the benefit of the students.
However, he insisted that the payment of Rs5,000 was taken as fee from the student to appear in the golden chance exam, which is his last opportunity to clear it. However, the students who just need four or less marks get grace marks and do not need to take the exam.
He said as per the policy a student in a four-year degree course got eight years (double the time) to complete the course. He said the grace marks were provided as golden chance exam only in the eighth year. “The university takes the money for the exam which entails some expenditure and not for giving grace marks,” he added.
