Manjit Singh-led panel sweeps PUTA elections

Other faculty members from Manjit Singh panel who won the elections included Mohammed Khalid (Department of Evening Studies) as secretary,Kitty Sidhu (HSJ Dental Institute) as joint secretary and Shivani Sharma (Philosophy) as treasurer.

In the absence of any candidate for the post of vice-president from Manjit Singh panel,Navneet Agnihotri from Tankeshwar Kumar’s panel won this post with 300 votes as against 224 votes by Ashwani Sharma.

Manjit Singh himself successfully secured his place in the executive members in Group I,elected with 254 votes,67 more than Veena Sachdeva (History),another candidate in the group from his panel.

Manjit Singh himself was the PUTA president in 2009.

Former president Jaspal Kaur Kaang welcomed the new panel assuring them support from all the faculty members. She was unanimously elected as the executive member for Group V.

“Things have just started. It is yet to be seen how much change we are able to bring into the campus for the betterment of faculty members,” Akshaya Kumar said.

Focussing on priorities of the newly-elected PUTA panel,secretary Mohammed Khalid said,“PUTA will ensure that teachers’ dignity is maintained. While,stress would be on recruitment and promotions,Central funding status to the university is also on our priority list.”

However,G K Chatrath-led panel failed to get even a single candidate elected. Chatrath,who is dean-faculty of law,was supported by daughter and former mayor of Chandigarh Anu Chatrath and her husband and a UBS faculty member Deepak Kapoor.

Promilla Pathak (Botany) was the presidential candidate.

Also,there were objections raised by candidates from other panels to the canvassing done by Chatrath for his panel in the university departments a day prior to the elections.