Chandigarh, July 6 (Inditop.com) The faculty and students of Panjab University, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was both a student and a teacher, Monday hailed the budgetary grant of Rs.50 crore (Rs.500 million) to the cash-starved institution.
Many said they were grateful to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as well as Manmohan Singh for coming to the aid of one of India’s oldest universities, set up originally in Lahore.
Vice-chancellor R.C. Sobti told IANS: “We are very happy with this big grant. It was a long pending demand of the university and now we would try to utilise these funds in the best possible manner.”
The university is funded by the central and Punjab governments in a 60:40 ratio. It has over 10,000 students, 70 percent of them women.
Manmohan Singh attained his bachelor’s and master’s in economics from the university in 1952 and 1954 respectively before going abroad for higher education.
He started his career by teaching economics at the university and went on to become a professor at the age of 32.
Ronki Ram, president of the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA), added: “It is a matter of great pride that our finance minister chose Panjab University out of 400 universities in the country.
“Everyone associated with this institution, its students, teachers and other employees, are all very thankful to the prime minister and finance minister.”
According to Ronki Ram, currently there is a financial deficit of Rs.168 crore. The grant “would certainly help improve the situation to some extent”.
Sanjiv Tewari, the university’s director of public relations, said: “The entire university hails this decision. We have got the recognition that we deserved.
“They have saved India’s fourth oldest university from deteriorating. Now the central government should also impart the status of central university or 100 percent centrally funded university as soon as possible.”
Harmanjit Singh Deol, a research scholar, said: “This grant has proved the fact that our finance minister is seriously thinking about us.”
