Barnala admn ‘forcibly’ builds election strongroom in college

BARNALA: The move of the Barnala administration to “forcibly” construct a strongroom for the forthcoming elections at the SD College for Education without taking the consent of the college authorities has caused resentment among students and staff.

Labourers unload bricks at the SD College for Education in Barnala. Tribune photo

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Barnala, September 11

The move of the Barnala administration to “forcibly” construct a strongroom for the forthcoming elections at the SD College for Education without taking the consent of the college authorities has caused resentment among students and staff. The playground of the government-aided college also got damaged during the poll duty rehearsals on September 8.

The college authorities have written to the district administration to shift the strongroom to some non-educational institute.

Dr Tapan Kumar Sahu, principal of SD College of Education, said, “Not even a single officer of the Barnala administration met us regarding this. We were only directed on September 4 through a letter that a strongroom would be constructed in our college and then construction started without even taking us in the loop for identifying the space.”

Furthermore, the college management said the administration informed them on the evening of September 7 about the duty rehearsal of all government employees in the college ground on September 8. The erection of tents and the parking of vehicles during the rehearsal caused damage to college ground.

“We spent Rs 2 lakh on the repair and maintenance of the ground last month as a Punjabi University sports competition is scheduled to take place here from September 12 to 14. The damage to the ground during the duty rehearsal has angered sports enthusiasts of the college. The Election Commission (EC) of India had in 2010 directed the authorities concerned to avoid using the premises of education institutes for elections. However, the administration is disregarding the EC direction,” said the principal.

College students fear that their studies would get affected as their college will remain occupied for election-related work. When contacted, Barnala Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dharam Pal Gupta said the matter was not in his knowledge. “I will look into the matter and take an appropriate action,” he said.