No takers for over 40% seats at Panjab University centre in Muktsar

Archit Watts

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Muktsar, November 25

As many as 44 per cent seats in all courses have remained vacant at Panjab University Regional Centre (PURC) in Muktsar this year. Further, the university has discontinued MPhil (political science and Punjabi) from this year here. It happened just because of the crumbling building of the institute, say the PURC authorities.

This prestigious institute, inaugurated in 1998, presently offers courses like MA (political science, Punjabi, economics, English), MCA and LLB at a nominal fee. It has total 264 seats in all these courses, but just 148 have filled till now.

Notably, the PURC is being run from a rented building of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Tibbi Sahib Road here. Some portions of this building have collapsed in the past few years. Though some repair work was done in 2018, yet the funds were insufficient to carry out all the required repair work.

Further, the construction wing of the university had declared the existing building unsafe a few years ago. In 2016, the state government had transferred nearly 5-acre land on the name of PURC along Government College here. However, just the boundary wall could be constructed and the work stopped due to paucity of funds.

Prof Baljinder Kaur, Director, PURC, Muktsar, said: “A large number of seats are vacant in all courses this year. It happened just because of the crumbling building. It requires a huge repair work.”