HC asks Gian Sagar mgmt to submit revival plan by Friday

THE DIRECTION WAS ISSUED AS THE GIAN SAGAR EDUCATIONAL AND CHARITABLE TRUST FAILED TO PUT ON RECORD EFFORTS IT WOULD TAKE TO SAVE THE COLLEGE

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday gave Banur-basedGianSagarMedical College management time till Friday to submit a revival plan.

The direction was issued by the high court bench of justice RK Jain following Gian Sagar Educational and Charitable Trust, which runs the college, failed to submit a plan and court was told by the government that new trustee, Varinder Kumar, who represented the management, was unable to produce any documentary evidence of the old trustees having resigned and new ones having stepped in.

“No resignation, no resolutions, no trust deed, etc was produced by the trustee,” secretary, medical education and research, Punjab, Vikas Pratap told high court in his response. The meeting between various stakeholders was ordered by high court in order to break the impasse.

The college is closed since February 1.

The government also said that new trustee was unaware of current liabilities and merely claimed that all problems would be resolved within six months. The new trustee was unaware of deficiencies pointed out in the show-cause notice served by the department of medical education and also the de-affiliation notice served by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot. He also failed to give concrete road map for the future, Pratap told the court. Faculty had rejected the offer of peace meal payment. But government was taking all possible steps to

resolve the issues at earliest, he added. On the other hand, Varinder said that two trustees — Dilbag Singh and Paramjit Kaur — have resigned, the membership of Dr Sukhwinder Singh and

Sukhwinder Kaur had been terminated and three persons have joined the trust as members, including Sahib Singh, Ravinder Kumar and Mohit Gawri. Further, Ravinder Kumar had been appointed trustee, the court was told.

The court was told that ₹30 crore was required for salaries, electricity bill and other government dues. The new trust was ready to infuse ₹10 crore every month till all liabilities are cleared. ₹30 lakh was paid during last week only. The trust was also in talks with employees for clearing their dues in instalments, the court was told. As of objections raised by the government, it would be removed.

In view of statements from both sides, the court has now given time till Friday to the management to submit the revival plan, give details about running a medical college in past and requisite documents about takeover by new trustees.

The high court was hearing a plea by students demanding to start of classes immediately. The 10 petitioner students had stated that they were admitted to the college on the basis of the NEET merit/PMET merit in the academic session 2016-2017 and attended all the classes till January 2017. But then entire teaching faculty and the paramedical staff went on strike over non-payment salaries and classes were not being held.