Cash-strapped govt ‘using’ PTU funds to set up skill university

Announcement to set up varsity was made by government in the 2017 budget

A skill university cannot be set up without having proper infrastructure. Once the college is ready, the government would bring in legislation to convert it into a skill university.

CHARANJIT SINGH CHANNI, technical education minister

university, he said. “A skill university cannot be set up without having proper infrastructure. Once the college is ready, the government would bring in legislation to convert it into a skill university,” said Channi, who claimed that ₹1,000 crore would be spent on the university.

Questions are being raised if the cash-strapped state government is smartly using the funds of cash rich IKG-PTU to set up another university.

During the previous SAD-BJP regime too, efforts were made to use the ₹1,200 crore corpus fund of the IKG-PTU to set up another technical university at Bathinda. The government even diverted around ₹200 crore, but the Punjab and Haryana high court stayed the move after university employees objected it, terming it an attack on the financial autonomy of the varsity.

“The outflow of money from an autonomous institute is an outrageous and arbitrary move as the finances generated by an institute are meant to be spent on that institute only,” quotes the 2015 HC judgment.

A senior IKG-PTU officer privy with the developments admitted that the government was desperate to fulfill its promise of setting up a skill university, but had no funds for it. The university was asked to spend money to set up a constituent college, he said.

“Even the last two minutes of the meeting of the board of governors, in which decisions over sanctioning of funds was taken, have not been uploaded on the university website,” he said.

IKG-PTU vice-chancellor Ajay Kumar was not available for comments despite repeated attempts.