Two more govt colleges get nod to change affiliation

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 10

Two more government colleges have got approval for leaving the affiliation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda, and get affiliated to IK Gujral Punjab Technical University.

In a letter dated April 9, the Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training gave its nod to the Malout Institute of Management and Information Technology, Malout, Muktsar district, and Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology (BHSBIET), Lehra Gaga, Sangrur district, to end their affiliation with MRSPTU and go back to IK Gujral PTU.

Following the department’s approval, MRSPTU is left with only one government college, apart from private colleges, under its jurisdiction. As the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur, had discontinued its affiliation with MRSPTU earlier, now only the Giani Zail Singh Campus College of Engineering and Technology (GZSCCET) has been left with the university.

Trouble is also brewing at GZSCCET with a part of staff members giving representations to the department demanding autonomous identity for the college and to bring it back under IK Gujral PTU.

While BHSBIET Principal Manoj Bali refused to elaborate on the reasons behind the shift, Sanjiv Sharma, Principal of MIMIT, said, “A delegation of faculty members, staff and students had approached the college authorities and submitted a representation demanding that the college be affiliated to IK Gujral PTU, instead of MRSPTU. We moved the case with the state government and got the aproval from the department.”

MRSPTU Vice-Chancellor Mohan Paul Singh Ishar stated that after the Cabinet’s nod to the proposal of allowing colleges to choose which university they wished to be affiliated to, the university had taken up the issue with the Minister of Technical Education and industrial Training, Charanjit Singh Channi.

“We were told that the governing bodies of the colleges, including government colleges, will be given freedom to choose affiliation. MRSPTU was recently constituted and has been following all the rules and orders diligently and wishes to make no compromise with the procedures to be followed,” the VC said.

He added that the university authorities were told that the government colleges needed financial support, which MRSPTU, being a newly established entity, was unable to provide. Denying that the move of colleges was reflecting badly on MRSPTU, the VC stated that colleges might have also been moving away since they didn’t like the discipline being imposed by the university.