Punjabi University teachers, students hold separate protests

Tribune News Service
Patiala, April 19

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the teaching and non-teaching staff of Punjabi University today was back to holding protests over matters of grants for the university, salaries, pensions and others.

The JAC members said the state government had not adhered to the university’s demands.

They said: “The state government has neither provided the Rs 90-crore grant as stated in the state budget for the fiscal year nor increased the monthly grant. Also, over half of April has passed but the government has failed to provide the monthly salary of the employees.”

Meanwhile, students broke-into the meeting room of the university administration and held a separate demonstration against the new orders of workload allocation.

Students associated with various student political parties held a protest at the administrative complex demanding revocation of the issued orders. They, then broke the lock of the hall and forcefully entered the syndicate room in an attempt to register their protest.

They said the orders issued to principals and heads of various centres were against the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules.

“The university has directed centre heads to allocate teaching workload to junior and senior research fellows before contractual and guest faculty teachers. This will lead to research scholars being forced to go centres and teach students rather than focus on their research,” Sandeep Kaur, student leader of the Punjab Radical Students’ Union (PRSU), said.

The students added that this was the university’s attempt to reduce its expenditure.

Responding on the same, University Dean academics Dr Pushpinder Singh Gill said the university was governed by certain rules and they would look into the matter and take a final decision.

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