Technical varsity V-C quits

While the minister said Dr Singh had resigned due to some personal reasons, air in the university campus and engineering colleges is thick with rumours that he resigned in the light of recommendations of the three-member committee headed by Dr T.C. Goyal, a senior professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Dr Anup Singh could not be contacted.

The committee was constituted by the Punjab government to probe into irregularities in the controversial Combined Engineering Entrance Test CEET, conducted by this university last year. This test was challenged by a student in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On the directions of the court, all the papers were rechecked and glaring lapses were detected in the earlier result.

At this, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had held a Lok Adalat on the university campus, chaired by Chief Justice A.B. Saharia and attended by three senior judges. As the Lok Adalat too pointed out some glaring lapses on the part of the university authorities, the government had to conduct an inquiry under compulsion.

This committee submitted its report last month. University Registrar K.K. Dhir however, claimed Dr Singh had not resigned due to findings of the inquiry committee, as the report had not been discussed by the governing body of the university.

Dhir said the report was likely to be discussed next month and was likely to fix responsibility on the guilty, apart from giving suggestions for the institute8217;s improvement.

Secretary, Technical Education, N.S. Rattan said Dr Singh had resigned on his own. He reiterated that there was no other reason behind the move.

Meanwhile, university authorities have declined extension to Dr D.S. Kumar, co-ordinator of the committee which prepared the controversial CEET result and he has been sent to his parent institute, PAU. The registrar confirmed this move. It is pertinent to mention here that this university was charged with collapse of machinery when engineering students from the first batch from all over Punjab held a month-long agitation against the examination pattern introduced by the university.