Chandigarh, March 14, 2023 (Yes Punjab News)
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal today blasted the AAP government in Punjab for slashing the annual budgetary grant of the Punjabi University Patiala from ₹ 200 crore to ₹ 164 crore instead of increasing it as required by the varsity. The AAP “ drama party” is now trying to defuse the outrage against its decision by making yet another false promise to revise the allocation”, he asserted.
Mr Badal was reacting to reports which quoted the Punjabi University vice chancellor saying the varsity faced a dark future and demanded that the budgetary grant should be over ₹ 300 crore. The university is already under a debt of ₹150 crore and is not in a position to pay salaries on time. Mr Badal asked the govt to accept the VC Professor Arvind’s plea for increasing the budget of the university from ₹164 crore to ₹360 crore.”
Mr Badal also rubbished as “another fake commitment” the belated promise of the state government to revise the allocation. “True to his theatrical gimmicks, chief minister Bhagwant Mann had made similar tall promises to the staff and the students during one of his highly publicized visits to the campus last year, only to forget these same evening. The same script is being replayed now,” said the Akali chief in a statement here.
Mr Badal said that the utterly shabby treatment meted out to an academic edifice which symbolized the commitment of Punjabi’s to their language, culture and their religious legacy, “including research in the sacred Gurbani texts, is just one more proof of how insensitive this government is to Punjab and Punjabi and to the heritage bequeathed to us by the great Guru Sahban.”
“It is not just about finances . The fact is that this government is implementing an anti Punjab, anti Punjabi and anti Sikh agenda set by its masters in Delhi is obnoxious. What they have been doing to the Punjabi varsity is only a symptom of that agenda.
They have neglected all heritage sites and memorials and everything connected with our sacred legacy. The utter neglect of the upkeep of the Heritage surroundings of the Sri Harmandar Sahib as well as of other places and memorials connected with our proud legacy is proof of this new agenda,” said Mr Badal asserted.
The SAD Chief said that nowhere was this agenda more pronounced than in the systematic neglect of education at all levels in the state. “This despite the fact that AAP tom-tommed the Delhi model of education and health and promised to make these two priority sectors.
The manner in which the AAP government had cut off funds to Punjabi university is proof that it has no intention of improving the education sector in Punjab and only believes in gimmicks. It is also shameful that it is strangling academic research in Punjabi in an institution which is the only fine along with Hebrew University to be named after a language”.
Referring to the assurances reportedly given to the Punjabi varsity VC, Professor Arvind, to revise the budgetary allocation, Mr Badal said if the government had agreed to revise the allocation within days of presenting the budget, what had stopped it from including these in the original budgetary allocations in the first place?
The university had clearly told the government that the salary bill of the university had increased by around ₹100 crore after the implementation of pay commission and that a cut in the annual grant would be disastrous for the university. Mr Badal said that the teachers and student bodies also held a protest against the government on the international mother language day for the same reason before the budget.
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