E-Paper
PUTA elections: Mritunjay Kumar elected president for second year in row
The group of Mritunjay Kumar and Amarjit Singh Naura managed to retain all key posts in the elections of Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) held on Thursday.
The group of Mritunjay Kumar and Amarjit Singh Naura managed to retain all key posts in the elections of Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) held on Thursday.
While Kumar was again elected as the president of the PU teachers’ body, Supinder Kaur and Naura also retained vice-president and secretary posts, respectively. With this, the Rajesh Gill group, whom the Mritunjay-Naura group owes allegiance to, has registered a PUTA win for the fifth year in a row. The group is also backed by the Goyal group of PU senate and syndicate.
Kumar secured 292 votes compared to his opponent Manu Sharma who managed to get 241 votes. Aged 44, Kumar is an assistant archivist at PU’s AC Joshi library. He has pursued his masters in history from the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and a PhD from Panjab University.
Of the total 626 eligible votes, 567 (90%) were polled. Last year, 83% polling was registered over two days of polling.
For the post of vice-president, with 319 votes, Supinder Kaur of department of laws, who is from Kumar’s group, emerged victorious against Ikreet Singh Bal, who managed 226 votes.
Biochemistry department’s Naura, who was contesting for the post of secretary, got 285 votes against Kashmir Singh’s 268.
With 300 votes, Sarvnarinder Kaur of biophysics department emerged victorious for the post of joint secretary against Shivani Sharma, who got 252 votes. Nitin Arora of the economics department defeated Sucha Singh to bag the treasurer’s post.
Moreover, in all three executive groups, Mritunjay-Naura team managed to take the majority over the rival group of Manu Sharma and Kashmir Singh.
Smooth polling
Returning officer Vijay Nagpal said, “Polling and counting went smoothly and there was no disruption by any person. However, till Wednesday evening, some voters had some doubts about the integrity of the returning officer and his team, but Thursday on noticing that how transparent my team worked, all their doubts were cleared and no objection of any kind was raised by any member.”
Implementation of 7th Pay Commission top priority: Kumar
Q Despite many attempts, the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission is still pending?
Ans This is our top priority and we will clinch this. We are continuously pursuing the matter with the Punjab government and we are hopeful that we will achieve this soon.
Q What will be your immediate priorities?
Ans Apart from the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, the immediate release of retirement benefits and streamlining of the house allotment process for senior teachers will be our priorities. We will also ensure that counselling for house allotment is carried out as per university rules.
Q The LTC facility is yet to be restored, what is your plan for it?
Ans We have already initiated working on it and we have asked the university to restore this provision. We have also demanded that it should be extended by one year.
Q Cases of ‘counting of past service’ are still in the pipeline?
Ans Some cases have been cleared by the university panel, however, there are over 40 cases still pending. The teachers had sought more time for the submission of requisite documents. Whenever they will submit them, we will expedite the matter.
