Close call, Amarjit Singh Naura wins by eight votes, elected PUTA chief

Chandigarh, October 5

In a photo-finish race, Amarjit Singh Naura of the Department of Biochemistry won the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) elections held here today.

Naura defeated his rival closet Rattan Singh by a margin of just eight votes. Of 590 members, 547 cast turned up to cast vote. Naura got 237 votes, while Rattan bagged 229. Suman Sumi won the post of vice-president, while Mritunjay Kumar was elected general secretary as he defeated Kashmir Singh by two votes.

The other winners are Surinder Pal Singh (joint secretary), Vishal Sharma (treasurer) Deepti Gupta, Gaurav Kalotra, Gautam Bahl and Nitin Arora (executive group I), Kavita Taneja, Naveen Kaushal, MC Sidhu and Navdeep Goyal (executive group II) and Anupam Bahri, Deepak Gupta, Jagjit Singh and Naresh Kumar (executive group IV), Keshav Malhotra (executive group V) and Parveen Kumar (executive group VI).

Following his victory, Naura appreciated the voters and promised to work for the welfare of the faculty. “Our team has won the elections for the sixth time. The competition was tough, which clearly guides us to work better for the fraternity. Our priority will be to take up issues related to the release of arrears as per the 7th Pay Commission and implementation of old pension scheme. The promotion of dental faculty under CAS and increments for teachers will be our immediate priorities,” said Naura. This year, the PUTA elections remained a triangular contest. Naura, Ashok Kumar and Rattan Singh were in the race for the top post.

Number game

• Of 590 members, 547 turn up to cast vote
• Naura gets 237 votes, closest rival Rattan bags 229
• Suman Sumi wins the post of PUTA vice-president
• Mritunjay is general secy, wins poll by just two votes

Faculty welfare top priority

The competition was tough, which guides us to work better. Our priority will be to take up issues related to release of salary arrears and implementation of old pension scheme — Amarjit Singh Naura, PUTA president