PU syndicate members stage dharna

CHANDIGARH: The members of the Panjab University syndicate on Monday held a dharna at the varsity demanding that the documents on the basis of which the senate elections had been postponed be shared with them.

The syndicate members including Ashok Goyal, Navdeep Goyal, Emanual Nahar had also met vice-chancellor (V-C) Raj Kumar on Monday. This comes two days after PU postponed the senate polls for two months on August 15, which were scheduled to start from August 24.

The senate is the apex governing body of PU with 91 members, out of which 36 are nominated by the varsity’s chancellor. The 16-member syndicate is the apex executive body elected from among the senate every year.

The members started the protest at the registrar’s office late Monday evening demanding that they were the members of the varsity’s executive body and hence, they should be told the reasons for postponing the elections.

‘V-C MISLED US’

Syndicate member Ashok Goyal said, “We had met the V-C two days before the announcement was made, but he misled us into thinking that nothing such was in the pipeline. On Monday we again held a meeting with the V-C demanding that documents be shared with us. They showed us the documents, but refused to share them with us.”

Syndicate member Navdeep

Goyal said, “We will continue to protest until the administration does not share the documents with us. We have also requested the V-C to convene a special meeting of the syndicate so that discussion can be held over the matter.”

Registrar Karamjeet Singh was not available for comments.

The term of the present senate is scheduled to end on October 31 this year. The term of the new senate is scheduled to begin from November 2020 till October 2024 after elections.