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Journalism of Courage
JALANDHAR, Aug 24: The debate is raging. The first ever combined entrance TEST CET held by the newly formed Punjab Technical University for admissions to various engineering colleges and technical institutes in the state has come under a cloud.
More than 45,000 students who took the test face an uncertain future as the university has been made to order rechecking of all papers following detection of discrepancies in evaluation. It took a student, Vivek Jain, to approach the high court and challenge the merit list prepared by the university authorities. Some admissions had already taken place before the court intervened.
The revised merit list, after the re-checking, has thrown the entire process of the conduct of examination, preparation of the merit list and admissions done on that basis by the university, topsy-turvy.
The fate of about 600 students whose marks have been reduced after rechecking is yet to be decided. These students had been given admissions to courses of their choice according to the initial merit list.
As the university authorities are preparing their reply and detailed report to be submitted to the court, the authorities may be bucking up for holding of a fresh round of counselling for admissions to the engineering and technical institutes on the basis of the fresh merit lists. Top university officials, including Vice-Chancellor Dr Anup Singh, were present in their offices even on Sunday to get their act together.
Although the PTU came into existence in January 1997, strangely the Punjab Government is yet to transfer the 148 acres of land on which the campus was to be built to the university.
The university is currently operating from the a campus of Regional Engineering College here with the offices of the VC, Registrar and administrative staff located there.
The 148 acres of land earmarked for the campus adjoins the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road. In fact, out of total over 200 acres of land initially earmarked for the PTU, a chunk of 100 acres was allotted to the science city project. The foundation stone for which was laid by the then Prime Minister I.K. Gujral.
The Vice Chancellor, when contacted, said that the university authorities were pursuing the transfer of land to the university in right earnest so that construction work for the campus could be taken up.
Although the Punjab Technical University Act 1996, envisages appointment of a Pro-Vice Chancellor for the university, the post has not been filled by the government.
The Pro-VC has to be appointed by Chancellor and Governor of Punjab on the advice of the state government from among the panel of persons recommended by the board of governors. However, no appointment has been made against the post for over a year now.
