Uproar in PU Senate

CHANDIGARH, March 28: Pandemonium broke out repeatedly during the course of the Panjab University senate meeting which lasted nearly 12 h...

CHANDIGARH, March 28: Pandemonium broke out repeatedly during the course of the Panjab University senate meeting which lasted nearly 12 hours today. At one point two members nearly came to blows in the well of the house and had to be separated. Despite the uproar, the budget was passed and power to appoint selection committees was resumed from the vice-chancellor and restored to the PU syndicate, but not without causing considerable embarrassment to the chair, namely the VC.

Other important decisions include raising teachers8217; retirement age from 60 to 62 years, thereby adopting the December 24, 1998, University Grants Commission notification quot;in totoquot;. The senate also resolved that the PU employees8217; pension scheme be implemented within a month, failing which another meeting would be convened. It was also decided to constitute a committee to look into the proposal moved by Randeep Surjewala that 33 per cent seats in the senate be reserved for women.

Late in the evening when nearly a dozen members were quarrelling in the well of the house over the issue of restoration of power to appoint selection committees for Class A Teaching posts to the syndicate, senators Pawan Valecha and G.K. Chatrath began pushing each other and shouting. Others immediately pulled them apart.

Commotion over the issue began when the VC opposed restoration as it would not be quot;condusive to the growth of the university.quot; Rajinder Deepa remarked that the comment might be a threat that no appointments would be made. Thereupon, several members rushed to the well shouting; the VC and Registrar Paramjit Singh, stood at their seats. Members of the Rajinder Deepa group resisted Puri8217;s move to withdraw the item, which was a part of the agenda, and adjourn the senate meeting.

The Surjewala proposal, which was earlier cleared by the PU syndicate in its January 10 meeting, was declared quot;passed with considerable dissent.quot;

The senators deliberated over the 1999-2000 budget for nearly four hours, passing it subject to the condition that recommendations of the sub-committee constituted by the PU Board of Finance be incorporated. It was also resolved that university authorities would divert no money from the corpus fund quot;Foundation for Higher Educationquot; toward meeting the budgetary deficit.