PM to visit alma mater in Chandigarh

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Panjab University (PU), his alma mater, here Nov 3. The teaching community and students of the institution are hoping that the prime minister will grant the institution central status.

Citing financial reasons, the teaching community at the PU is eager for the institution to come under the direct control of the central government.

The prime minister will be honoured with a D.Litt. degree at a special convocation.

He has not visited his alma ever since he became prime minister in May 2004. He has been to Chandigarh, where he owns a house in upscale Sector 11, several times, however.

Manmohan Singh not only completed his post-graduation from this university, originally established in Lahore (now in Pakistan's Punjab) in 1882, but started his teaching job with the same institution. He became an economics professor at the relatively young age of 32.

On Tuesday, the prime minister will first attend the convocation of the adjoining Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) before coming to the university. He will also lay the foundation stone of a multi-purpose auditorium on the university campus, PU officials said.

The teaching community, officials and students at the PU are hopeful that the prime minister will make some announcement granting central status to the university, which they have been demanding for a long time.

The university at present has a unique status as both the central and Punjab governments provide it funding in a sixty-forty ratio. The Punjab government, in recent years, has drastically pruned its funding to the PU \\, leaving it with a deficit of several crore rupees.

"We will submit a memorandum to the PM for central status. We think that he is in favour of granting central status to the PU but the Punjab government is not allowing that. The university has a financial crunch of Rs 70-80 crore now," PU Teachers' Association (PUTA) president Manjit Singh told IANS.

The Punjab government, after agreeing last year to allow central status to the PU, back-tracked later and started opposing the move. It said this would dilute Punjab's claim over Chandigarh - a union territory.

Last updated on Oct 30^th, 2009 at 15:38 pm IST--IANS