E-Paper
PU senate elections conclude: 11 more elected from graduate constituency
With counting of votes culminating on Tuesday, 11 more candidates were declared elected to the Panjab University (PU) senate from the registered graduate constituency
With counting of votes culminating on Tuesday, 11 more candidates were declared elected to the Panjab University (PU) senate from the registered graduate constituency. With this the election process of the senate, which was pending since last year, has drawn to a close.
The counting of votes for the registered graduate constituency began last week and four candidates had already been declared elected including former senators and a student leader.
The candidates who were declared elected on Tuesday include Manish Wayyer, who secured 3,022 votes, followed by Varinder Singh with 2,676 votes, Ravinder Singh with 2,418 votes, Prabhjit Singh with 2,305 votes and Balbir Chand Josan with 2,289 votes. The other elected candidates include Harjodh Singh, Lajwant Singh Virk, Jagwant Singh, Naresh Gaur, Sanjeev Kumar Bandlish and Kapil Sharma.
Ravinder Sigh, who is a former student leader and Phd scholar at PU, said, “I will ensure student representation in the senate and make efforts to ensure that their issues are addressed properly.”
The registered graduate constituency is the largest among the eight constituencies of the PU senate. Even though it had 3.61 lakh eligible voters, the voter turnout was only 14.57%.
Naresh Gaur, who has been elected for the third time to the senate from the graduate constituency said, “A lot of issues in the university are pending and we will ensure they are addressed in a timely manner now. We will also check whether all the work done during the absence of the senate were carried out as per rules and regulations.”
Jagwant Singh, general secretary of Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Oganisations (PFUCTO), said, “The college community is suffering a lot and that needs to be addressed on priority. Also, the university working has also deteriorated which needs to be improved for better results and better service to students.”
47 candidates elected from eight constituencies
From eight constituencies, 47 candidates have been elected into the 91-member senate. As many as 36 members are nominated by the university chancellor, two from the Punjab assembly and six are ex-officio members. The four-year term of the previous senate had ended on October 31, 2020
The results of the election are sent to the chancellor for final approval before a gazette notification is issued. The 36 members have already been nominated by Vice-President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu, who is the PU chancellor.
As of now, there is no clarity on when the next meeting of the PU senate will be held. The last meeting was held in December 2019. PU is also functioning without a syndicate, which is the executive arm of senate, since January this year and there are no deans as well.
