V-C turns around‘fragile inheritence’

“He definitely managed to keep the rowdy elements out of the university and went by the rule maintaining law and order in the campus,” said Professor Nishi Pandey,Dean of Student Welfare.

“His major achievement is that he restructured the administration setup of the university,” said AK Sengupta,Dean of Arts Faculty. “By decentralising the examination system,he gave responsibilities to the various department head and the teachers and also made them accountable for it,” added Pandey.

“This is the first time that all the sessions are running on time and 95 per cent of the results have been declared by June 30. All results will be declared by July 15. Unlike earlier,the admission procedure will now be closed on time,” said Brar.

He attributes the timely declaration of the postgraduate results to the decentralisation of the examination system. “I am more satisfied with the postgraduate results than the undergraduate,” he said.

Brar,a technology-friendly person,ensured the spread of internet in all the faculties across the university and has managed to promote an updated university website with online mark-sheet and form submission.

“Soon the university will get a higher connectivity with the help of BSNL Internet,” said Brar,who has spent Rs 4 crore on internet.

An IIT alumnus,he also ensured the development of various science laboratories in the university with a grant of around Rs 2 crore.

Inheriting a bank overdraft of Rs 10 crore,the vice- chancellor also managed to nullify it. “I managed it by cutting down the extra expenditure and recover the university’s pending amount from various commissions,” said Brar,who had met with a lot of resistance while checking the extra expenditures.

“I stopped all the lunch and dinners which were billed to the university. By installing an electric metre in the employees’ house,we were able to save around Rs 50-60 lakh,” he said. The university has also managed to save Rs 1 crore in the admission procedure for the present session as well.

The vice-chancellor also witnessed his own share of controversies. The university during Professor RP Singh’s tenure had bagged the first position and a grant of Rs 3 crore. Under Brar’s leadership,the university lost the coveted number one position conferred by the state government and also got only half the amount as grant.

Brar,however,blamed this on “technicalities”. Unlike Singh,he was also unable to attract new international collaborative projects. He managed to reap what Singh sowed pertaining to the funds allocation from UGC or state government. Teachers have also been reportedly denied personal promotions during his time and some of the reinstatements of faculty members in his tenure have attracted controversies.

UGC team meets LU college principals

A University Grants Commission (UGC) team finally met the principals of all the affiliated colleges of Lucknow University on Sunday. To grant the funds of 11th Five Year Plan — which started in 2007 — to the affiliated colleges,the 12-member team headed by Vice-Chancellor of Jaipur University,NC Jain,held an ‘Interface Meeting’ with the principals of 21 colleges of LU and 16 of Gorakhpur University.

The 17-paged performa declaring the demands of these colleges were collected during the meeting and the committee also allowed the principals to table and discuss their needs. “It was an appreciable effort from the side of the UGC,” said MS Naqvi,Principal,Shia College. “In Delhi,where the meetings were generally held,there used to be one-side traffic. Here,we were given a chance to discuss and justify our demands,” said SP Singh,Principal of National College.

“There are many schemes that the UGC provides and they are already available on the website of UGC but many colleges were unaware of it. The committee members made them aware of these schemes so that they could also explore these opportunities,” said AK Sengupta,Director of the planning and Development Board,Lucknow University.

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