CHANDIGARH: Punjab University it seems prefers all knowledge it has to be locked up neglected or allowed to gather dust in its corridors this is the story of the university’s science departments which are bursting at the seams. With an ever-increasing number of student’s research material and equipment the science departments of the University are becoming crowded by the day.
In most of these departments costly equipment and research material arc lined up along the corridors on different floors the reason is simple. There is no space inside laboratories or store rooms even discarded equipment litter the verandah
Inquiries reveal that in many departments the research material and buildings stored in steel almirahs stacked in the corridors are of immense academic value. “The stuff may appear to be waste but in reality these almirahs contain valuable research efforts of number of year” a teacher points out. A part of it is rare research work the value of which cannot be assessed in terms of money he adds
Besides the almirahs a visit to any department provides more dismaying details. There are incubators ovens laboratory equipment apart from furniture items like shelves tables and chairs. The list is quite long and is growing
Teachers point out that not only is the equipment costly and sensitive and the product of research Work faces the danger of being lost but there is also the fear of the thefts. The problem of plenty exists check by jowl with meager output on the academic side from these departments.
In some of the departments the crores bad that these things will have to be shifted outside the department building Even as this Situation continues new equipment keeps arriving. There are occasions when the new arrived equipment is assigned a spot on the verandah as there is no space in the rooms of the particular depart: has emerged over the volume of equipment and research work and the courses have multiplied while the areas of the departments has remained the same. In fact no new building has come up to accommodate the department’s inevitable expansion. This in tum is for want of funds
Interestingly the University is simultaneously engaging itself in a farce of a departmental inquiry” against its executive engineer R.K Gupta and the sub-divisional engineer R.K. Rai who have been charged with winking at a local contractor selling owned by the University cement in the open market by a high-powered inquiry committee headed by Sadan and a former Financial Commissioner of the Punjab Government who is also a member of the University senate.
The position of the Ans departments on the same campus however is in sharp contrast of that in the science block. That is essentially due to the absence of any equipment in these departments.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 25, 1994
