Chandigarh: After a heated exchange of words between the Panjab University (PU) senate members and vice-chancellor Arun Kumar Grover followed by his walkout from the meeting twice, the senate on Saturday decided to hold another meeting on January 7, 2018, to specifically discuss the issues concerning the colleges affiliated to PU. The senate members debated for one-and-a-half hour over the issue related to the extension to the college principals and demanded that the matter should be discussed, instead of being withdrawn.
The other issues, which could not be discussed in Saturday's senate meeting, would also be discussed on January 7.
The adjourned meeting of the senate started with the discussion on item number 39. However, some senate members objected to the item number 38 related to the extension of the tenure of college principals being withdrawn and insisted that the matter should be discussed. Senate member Ashok Goyal asked the vice-chancellor to explain the circumstances under which the item was withdrawn. Another senate members said the university makes its own rules which are contrary to what the Punjab government states. Grover said he had already provided two alternatives on the issue. One was to collate everything on the issue and bring it before the new syndicate that will be elected on December 18 or make notes on the issue and bring it in a special meeting convened specifically for the teachers.
Grover walked out of the senate at 11.20am, 80 minutes after the discussion on the extension issue commenced. He came back to resume the meeting at 11.30am and former vice-chancellor R P Bambah suggested to fix a date to convene a meeting for the college issues.
After the discussion resumed, one of the senate members while making his argument used the term "instead of wasting the time on this", which irked the other senate members. In turn, another senate member said that they were not wasting the time of the senate but the vice-chancellor was wasting their time for the last four years. To this, VC strongly replied, the meeting could be held when personal accusations were being made. "You can get another VC," said Grover and walked out of the House again. However, he came back to resume the meeting, after the registrar's intervention.
