Denial of senate polls plan to demolish democratic governance of PU: Senators

Fifteen Panjab University senators have said that the denial of senate elections is nothing but a calculated plan to demolish the democratic governance of the University.

The senators from Punjab, including HS Dua, Jarnail Singh, KK Sharma and Iqbal Singh Sandhu, on Tuesday sought an immediate intervention of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in the matter (conduct of senate polls at PU).

“Any covert game plan to install a Board of Governors (under National Education Policy 2020) consisting of all nominated members would lead to complete alienation of stakeholders from the decision-making processes of the university. Punjab government has yet to adopt NEP and as a stakeholder, if the consent of Punjab government is not taken, it would cause unrest in the region,” reads the letter.

“It is a murderous attack on the federal nature of Panjab University’s administrative structure, since the process of election to PU senate was scuttled midway after the nominations had been finalised and polling was to take place,” they said.

Senate polls of PU, which were earlier scheduled for August 24, were postponed by vice-chancellor Raj Kumar for the second time on October 15 due to Covid-19 pandemic. The letter to CM stated that “the repeated postponement of PU senate polls under the pretext of Covid-19 pandemic has serious implications for the landscape of education in the region and in the state of Punjab”.

The term of the present PU senate will end on October 31 and the senators have appealed to the Punjab CM to immediately intervene in the matter and ensure that elections to PU senate are conducted immediately.

PUTA writes to UT administrator

Meanwhile, Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) has also written to Chandigarh administrator and Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore and sought his intervention to ensure immediate conduct of senate polls of PU. The teachers’ body in its letter stated that apprehensions have grown stronger with each passing day that the “age old governing structure is in danger”.