All 30 science varsity posts vacant for 5 yrs

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rewari, June 11

Strange as it sounds, post-graduate students of various science disciplines at Indira Gandhi University here have been making do without a laboratory since it opened in 2013, even as practical classes are mandatory for each course. 

To top it all, no regular faculty has been appointed in any of the departments and in their absence, guest teachers have been running the show all these years. All 30 sanctioned posts are vacant in the departments of chemistry, physics, botany, zoology and environment science. 

Due to the lack of lab facility, the university has reduced the intake of students in physics, botany, zoology and environmental science from 60 to 20 from the coming academic session. Interestingly, there is no cut in the intake of students for chemistry, which too requires practical classes in a lab.

Vice Chancellor Prof Surendra Kumar Gakhar said when he joined three months ago, he was surprised to find the university had no laboratory for science PG courses. 

“The University Grants Commission norms suggest laboratory is mandatory for practical work, but three batches of each course have already passed out here. There should be one lab for a batch of 15 students. The university requires at least 32 labs. Therefore, we reduced seats in four departments,” he said.

Gakhar maintained they had started the work to set up laboratories, which was expected to be completed within three months. He said even the process to appoint regular faculty would be initiated soon. “Three new job-oriented courses — MSc in biotechnology, psychology and Masters in social work — are being introduced this year to provide new avenues to students,” the V-C added.