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Will move court against Centre’s restructuring of PU governing bodies: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann
Accusing the BJP of undermining Punjab and its rights, the chief minister said that similar attempts were made in the past as well, when he had opposed a proposal to affiliate Haryana’s colleges with Panjab University.
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for restructuring the governing bodies of Panjab University, Chandigarh, through a notification, dubbing the move “dictatorial.”
Mann, whose ministerial colleagues and other party leaders had reacted sharply a day ago to the notification, said that his government would approach the courts in the matter. “We are consulting legal experts. If we have to approach the high court or Supreme Court, we will do that. We will fight this injustice,” he said in a video post.
Mann said the Centre did not have power to amend the Panjab University Act, 1947, through a notification. “Any amendment in the Act must be done either by the state assembly or Parliament,” he said, calling the central government’s move a “Nadar Shahi farman (arbitrary decree).”
The central government has, through an October 28 notification, effected a major overhaul in the functioning of the 142-year-old Panjab University, trimming the size of its apex governing body, the senate, to 31, and doing away with elections for its executive body, the syndicate. Until now, the senate had 97 members while the syndicate members were elected from among the senators.
Accusing the BJP of undermining Punjab and its rights, the chief minister said that similar attempts were made in the past as well, when he had opposed a proposal to affiliate Haryana’s colleges with Panjab University. He said that Haryana wanted affiliation of its colleges in Ambala, Panchkula, Kurukshetra, and Yamunanagar with the university and through such affiliation, they wanted their members to gain entry into the university’s senate.
