Punjabi University students restrict Controller in office over pending exam

Tribune News Service
Patiala, July 28

Students of Punjabi University on Tuesday blocked the entry-exit of the office of University Controller and held a protest alleging that the university had been deliberately failing them in a particular exam to collect exam fees.

The students of Masters of Computer Application (MCA) were joined by students associated with Democratic Students’ Organisation (DSO), a student union, in their protest.

Over 15 students laid siege to the office of the Controller, Examinations, Dr Jasveerinder Singh and raised slogans against the university.

Later, they allowed the university employees to enter and exit the premises but restricted the Controller from leaving the office.

The students were also met by university functionaries but the matter could not be resolved. The university later called in security officials to ensure order at the office premises.

Students of MCA 3-year course have been holding the protest outside the office of Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr BS Ghuman since Monday.

They claimed the university had been failing them in one paper of 1st semester (Computer organisation Architecture) since 2017.

“We have filed for re-evaluation and re-appeared in the exam repeatedly. Some of our seniors who have appeared for golden chance as well are still being failed repeatedly,” said Rashveer Kaur who claimed she scored on average over 70 per cent marks in remaining semesters.

The students said nearly half of them, 33 out of a batch of 70 of 2017-2020 were being failed repeatedly.

Another student added to it and said, “We have got job offers from companies but have not been able to join them as we are repeatedly being failed in this paper.”

Responding to the matter, an official of the university said the students had been scoring merely 2 and 3 marks in the paper and added they could not pass the paper in such scenario.

University Controller Dr Jasvirinder Singh Khattar who recently joined the office in June said in the afternoon that the students had not met him yet. He said the office will act as per university norms only.