College affiliation changed without Secy nod

CHANDIGARH:A move by Punjab’s Technical Education Department to favour Chandigarh Polytechnic College, Gharuan, by changing its affiliating authority from the Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training to private Chandigarh University, Gharuan, has kicked up a storm.

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 13

A move by Punjab’s Technical Education Department to favour Chandigarh Polytechnic College, Gharuan, by changing its affiliating authority from the Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training to private Chandigarh University, Gharuan, has kicked up a storm.

Certain department officials issued an NOC to disaffiliate the private educational institution under the stamp of Anurag Verma, Principal Secretary, Technical Education and Industrial Training, without his knowledge, prompting Verma to withdraw the permission and seek explanation from the officials concerned.

Besides, a note by Verma’s predecessor DK Tewari, proposing Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to withdraw his consent given on the official file to issue the NOC, has gone missing from official record. Tewari is learnt to have pointed out that while taking the minister's consent, the Board had not been taken in the loop.

The previous Secretary pointed out that giving disaffiliation consent would encourage other institutions to follow the pattern, affecting technical education.

Disaffiliating any technical institution from the state board in favour of private universities means deregulating the fee structure and admissions, said an official.

A senior official in the Directorate of Technical Education said rule 17.10 under the Approval Process Handbook of the All Indian Council of Technical Education (AICTE) allows issuance of NOC for disaffiliation. The minister said the permission to disaffiliate the polytechnic from the board had been withdrawn. “The NOC is yet to be issued by the board,” he said. The Principal Secretary said he had already issued order to withdraw the letter issued under his stamp.

Incidentally, the Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training had for the past three years been engaged in a legal battle with Thapar Polytechnic College, Patiala, over its disaffiliation from the board.

Documents assessed by The Tribune suggest by not keeping the Punjab State Board of Technical Education and Industrial Training in the loop, the Directorate of Technical Education moved the file through the Principal Secretary in November 2018. Subsequently, the minister’s orders were taken on the file on January 2, 2019, to issue the NOC.

But when the file was moved by the Director, Technical Education, to the minister, through then Principal Secretary Tewari, the latter in his note (on January 16, 2019) pointed out the anomaly and proposed to the minister to withdraw his consent given on file, earlier. On August 16, eight months after Secretary DK Tewari was transferred, the NOC was issued. Incidentally, Verma joined as Principal Secretary, Technical Education, on August 9.