Haryana seeks PU affiliation for colleges, Punjab opposes

CHANDIGARH:While the Chandigarh Administration raised the demand for more funds for Panjab University (PU), the Punjab Government opposed the Haryana Government’s demand for affiliation of its colleges to the PU during the Northern Zonal Council meeting held today.

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, September 20

While the Chandigarh Administration raised the demand for more funds for Panjab University (PU), the Punjab Government opposed the Haryana Government’s demand for affiliation of its colleges to the PU during the Northern Zonal Council meeting held today.

When Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar raised the demand for affiliation of the state colleges to the PU, his Punjab counterpart opposed the proposal. The Haryana Government stated that the state government was keen on joining the PU again and would give appropriate funds to it. However, Punjab agreed to help the university in the best possible way.

The PU has been facing financial crisis for long. For the first few years, after the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966, besides the colleges in the re-organised Punjab, the colleges situated in the newly carved-out states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh continued to be affiliated to the PU. Over a period of time, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh established their separate state universities and gradually withdrew the affiliation of their respective colleges. Later, the Consultative Committee of the Union Government of India enhanced the share of the Centre and re-fixed the ratio at 60:40 between the Central Government (through the UT Administration) and the Punjab Government to cover up the deficit due to withdrawal of support by Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

The matter regarding the release of uncovered previous deficit of Rs 17.98 crore is pending with the Punjab Government. Panjab University requested that the Punjab Government may release an additional grant of Rs 17.98 crore during 2017-18 over and above the existing provision of Rs 27 crore. The Punjab Government stated that there was no budget provision for an additional grant, but the due amount of Rs.17.9 crore would be released to Chandigarh. The university has demanded Rs 50 crore per annum through Chandigarh, however, the UT stated that assistance from the MHRD was required on some issues.

Panchkula MLA writes to Amit Shah

Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta has written an open letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting him to approve the affiliation of Panchkula colleges to Panjab University.
The MLA had also mentioned an earlier request letter dated July 26, 2019, written to the Home Minister.
Gupta said, “Due to district colleges not being affiliated to Panjab University, the students have to either go to Chandigarh or PU-affiliated colleges in Punjab cities like Hoshiarpur, Muktsar and Ludhiana. This deprives them of their right to admissions in certain streams in Panjab University as they are treated in 15 per cent quota category (rest of India) as against 85 per cent for UT colleges affiliated to the PU.”
“I hereby again reiterate the factual position that as per Section 72 sub-sections (3) (4) of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, Panjab University, Chandigarh, is the joint property of both Punjab and Haryana. Haryana had the representation in the Senate/Syndicate, but this system was not continued during the regime of then Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal (Oct 1997),” the letter read.