On Tuesday, two students of the Panjab University (PU), from Chandigarh, were invited by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to come to New Delhi Nov 5 for discussions on the issue of granting central status to this varsity. Gandhi interacted with over 350 students of PU on October 13. During the interaction, Shivani Negi and Barinder Dhillon raised the long-pending issue of granting central status to the PU, one of the oldest in the country.
During the interaction, Gandhi admitted he was not aware about the issue and promised the students that he would fix a meeting with Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal in New Delhi on the issue. Gandhi had also taken the mobile number and e-mail address of these two students. Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) is pressing for central status for the last many years. However, the Punjab government is against this proposal as it feels it would lose control over the PU if central status is granted to it. PU is also the alma mater of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He also taught here and reached the post of professor at the young age of 32 while teaching in Chandigarh.
