PAU’s agitating students sleep out at night in biting cold

Ludhiana: Students wearing black badges continued to hold a protest outside the grounds opposite the examination hall, boycotting the flower show on Tuesday. The protest entered the seventh day on Tuesday. On Monday night, students slept outside the Thapar Hall in teeth-biting cold to make their voice reach the authorities. However, the directorate of student’s welfare, dean Post-Graduate Studies, dean College of Agriculture, and estate officer promised to resolve the matter, but students were not satisfied.
Student representative Karanvir Singh Sandhu said: “The university culture of PAU has been compromised. A university is supposed to have openness and a certain amount of freedom given to students. Issues regarding prospectus fee of PAU and hike of fee has also come up, and it needs to be addressed. If things continue like this, that day is not far when PAU will restrict its education just to books. Students leading the protest are being targeted and pressurised in one or the other. But we want to state that these things will not stop us from fighting for our rights, and agitating for our demands. And if our demands are not addressed, we will intensify the protest by starting a hunger strike.”

Jasreet Kaur, student of B.Sc Agriculture, said: “The voice of students is being suppressed by PAU authorities. Many times, the students have got together for some cause, but all in vain. Hostel gates were shut at 10.30pm on Monday night without informing us, despite the deadline being 11pm, and they threatened to cancel our hostel seats. Authoritatian decisions are constantly imposed on students. There is no representation of students in decisions taken for the students, which is the main cause of this protest.”

Gurinder Singh, student of M.Sc Agri-Economics, said: “Take the recent decision of four-wheeler ban. It was observed and brought to the notice of the authorities many times that four-wheelers without PAU stickers were entering the campus. It was also observed that parents of PAU students were not allowed to enter the campus. The ban was just a ban on student vehicles, and not of any visitors, VIPs, government officials, and persons holding gate passes for transit.”

PAU vice-chancellor Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon said: “While I was entering my office, I met students and told them not to waste time by protesting, and they should go back to their hostels. I will discuss the issues with them but not like this, and told them to call off their protest. They cannot pick and choose the fee structure and other issues. The Haryana government has its own budget and the Punjab government its own. Students cannot compare fee structures randomly. Then, salaries too should be compared. The Punjab government employees are getting better payscales than the employees of Haryana.”