Punjab has four government technical universities out of which two have been running without a permanent vice-chancellor (V-C) for long. The two include the first and largest technical university in the state which has been waiting for a permanent V-C since August 2021. To make matters worse, it is even functioning without an officiating V-C for the past around four months.

I K Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKGPTU), which is the first technical university of the state set up in 1997 in Jalandhar and later shifted to its new campus in Kapurthala district on Jalandhar-Kapurthala road.

IKGPTU was divided into two parts and a new Maharaja Ranjit Singh PTU (MRSPTU), which was formerly known as MRS State Technical University located in Bathinda, was set up in 2015 and has jurisdiction over 11 districts of the Malwa region. The previous Congress government had upgraded two government engineering colleges as deemed technical universities in 2021 ahead of the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections. Earlier both these colleges were affiliated with IKGPTU and these are now known as Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Ferozepur, and Sardar Beant Singh State University, Gurdaspur.

IKGPTU’s last permanent V-C, Dr Ajay Sharma, completed his tenure in August 2021 and since then no new permanent V-C has been appointed here. The university has around 280 colleges – including technical, management, pharmacy, hotel management, commerce, etc. – affiliated with it, apart from its campus classes in various streams. Dr Sharma’s tenure was also marred by controversies that included appointment of professors as deans which was cancelled later.

Since August 2021 to September 2022 five secretaries (Technical Education), including Ramesh Kumar, Raj Kamal Chaudhuri, Vikas Garg, Rahul Bhandhari and Nilkanth A Avhad, had been appointed as officiating V-Cs. All the IAS officers, who are becoming principal secretary of the Technical Education department, are being given the charge of officiating V-C, but currently ever since the new principal secretary of Technical Education joined around four months ago, the PTU officiating V-C charge was not given because of the internal politics of PTU officials and the tussle between Punjab government and state governor, said sources. Governor had asked the state government to give the charge of officiating V-C to the senior-most dean or professor.

In the previous Congress government the name of former dean Prof Siby Jhon, who is currently head of the civil engineering department in Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh, was cleared for the post of PTU vice-chancellor and the file was sent to the governor also, but later the file was recalled during the tenure of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

The present government had started the process of appointment of permanent V-C and a committee was formed to draw up a shortlist for the job, but that committee was dissolved. A new search committee was formed recently which will suggest names for the post of new V-C and then PTU may get one in the coming months, said sources.

PTU started classes on its campus only in 2015. It currently has over 1,000 students enrolled in 16 undergraduate, 17 postgraduate, 16 doctorate and three M.Phil programmes. Even the former principal secretary (Technical Education), Rahul Bhandari, who was  holding the charge as the officiating V-C of the university, had got the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) assessment done for the first time so that the PTU’s weaknesses and strengths could be gauged. PTU had got grade B in its first-ever inspection for the assessment of the ‘quality status’ even as several colleges affiliated with it secured A+ or A grade.  Similarly, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Ferozepur, is not having a permanent V-C and the V-C of MRS PTU Bathinda, Dr Buta Singh, was given the additional charge of V-C of this university ever since its upgradation as a university.

Officials said that in the absence of a permanent V-C, several things are getting ignored despite the best efforts by the IAS officiating V-Cs because they have their portfolios to handle in the government, while an academician with a full-time job as V-C is a must for better results.

There is lot of political interference in the appointment of V-Cs in the state universities, particularly in IKGPTU as even before the appointment of Dr Ajay Kumar Sharma as PTU V-C in 2018, the university had to wait for three years to get a permanent V-C. After relinquishing the charge of PTU V-C by the then RSS-backed Dr Rajneesh Arora in December 2014, PTU could not get any permanent V-C till 2018.

Punjab Technical Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains could not be contacted as the person who attended his phone said that currently they are out of the state and can’t talk. Experts also said that Punjab is a small state and it does not require four technical universities and these universities must be merged into one or two.