Manjit-Akshaya group leads in PUTA poll

Amarnath Gill from the statistics department was elected as the Vice President with 293 votes,over his opponent Yogrash Angrish (Punjabi department) who obtained 259 votes. Jayanti Dutta from the Academic Staff College was elected as the Secretary with 292 votes,over her opponent Devinder Singh (laws department) with a lead of just 17 votes. The top three office bearers were elected from the Manjit-Akshaya group.

Four members are chosen from Executive group 1 which consists of teachers from the Arts faculty. Out of eight candidates,Akshaya Kumar from the English department led with 385 votes. The other three elected members in this group are Prof Manjit Singh (Sociology department) receiving 314 votes,Dr Shivani Sharma (Philosophy department) with 260 votes and Dr Ashok Sabharwal (Hindi) with 226 votes. Three,out of four,members elected in this group are from the Manjit-Akshaya group.

Four members are also chosen from Executive group 2,which consists of teachers from the Science faculty. In this group,Dr Guldeep Singh (Computer Science) led with 278 votes. Dr G.R. Chaudhary (Chemistry department) was a close second with 275 votes,followed by Dr Deepak Rahi (Microbiology) with 261 votes and Dr Suman Mor (Environment Science) with 239 votes.

Three members chosen from Executive group 3 are teachers from Professional and Technical departments. The elected members here are Latika Sharma (Education department) with 283 votes,Anil Kumar (University Institute of Pharmaceutical Science) with 260 votes and Devinder Preet (Dental Institute) with 253 votes.

Kirti Vardhan of Department of Evening Studies and Jatinder Grover of University School of Open Learning won unopposed. Akshaya Kumar,elected from Executive group 1,received the highest number of votes in any category.

The newly elected PUTA president,Mohammed Khalid,said,“Our focus will be on timely promotion of teachers,childcare leave for women and regular recruitment of teachers in the University.” He also said that he will request the the Vice-Chancellor to pass the UGC guidelines issued in 2006. He added that his group had no alliance with any other group or any external support.

The opposing presidential candidate,Ravi Mahajansaid,“the community has given a good verdict and we appreciate it. The new team must work for the welfare of teachers.”

The outgoing PUTA president,Akshaya Kumar,who has been re-elected from Executive group 1,said that the victory is an endorsement of the positive work done by his group. He added that the new team should carry forward the culture of work initiated by his team last year.