Chandigarh, July 07: The Union Budget presented on Monday gave the Panjab University a reason to cheer.
A grant of Rs 50 crore has been sanctioned for the university.
It is for the first time that the university has managed to find a place in the Union Budget.
The grant comes as a major relief, as the university is facing acute shortage of funds. “I am grateful to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development for the amount they have sanctioned. Also, it is an honour for our university to have its name being mentioned in the Parliament,” Vice-Chancellor Prof R C Sobti said.
He said the entire sum would be spent on developing infrastructure on the campus, and sports would be the priority.
A committee would be formed to decide as to how the grant should be spent. A part of the grant will be spent on developing the hockey ground with a new turf. Further, infrastructure in departments and hostels will be upgraded.
Sources said the grant was part of the Rs 100-crore special grant approved for the varsity by the Prime Minister’s Office. But Prof Sobti denied it and said both grants were different.
Talking to Newsline, former Vice-Chancellor Prof K N Pathak said, “It is a great move by the Central government, and we all should be thankful.”
Pathak said it had been a long-pending demand of the varsity. “All universities which are 100-year-old were given grants worth Rs 100 crore in the previous years, but PU was denied this grant on the ground that it did not complete 100 years.
The ministry did not acknowledge the years when the varsity was in Lahore,” Pathak said. “Maybe in its golden jubilee year, the university has been given this grant. But what matters now is that the varsity got a share from the Union Budget for the first time.”
–Agencies