HPU announces two more chairs of Rajiv Gandhi and Panchayati Raj studies

Updated on: Thursday, January 31, 2013

Continuing with its announcement spree, the vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU), Prof A D N Bajpai, has declared to add two more academic chairs - that of Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Panchayati Raj Studies -- in the varsity, besides making a plea to the state government for enhancing the varsity budget to Rs 75 crore.

Though announcements of establishing eight chairs were done in the previous year also, only three chairs are functional in HPU currently -- that of Mahatma Gandhi, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Deen Dayal Upadhaya.

Registrar of HPU, C P Verma, confirmed that three academic chairs are functioning in HPU currently and that the executive council (EC) has approved making three more chairs functional recently -- that of Swami Dayanand, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and the founder of the state of HP, Dr Y S Parmar.

However, students in HPU rue that the varsity authorities' acts are limited to making announcements rather than actualizing what is being announced. ABVP campus president, Kushal Kaundal, said, "We want that the varsity authorities should chart out proper guidelines for admissions in the courses related to the chairs at the time of admissions itself. The admissions are not done for the chairs like for other subjects. There should be a proper system of functioning of the chairs. As compared to the announced ones, only a few are functioning yet."

In a meeting of the executive council held in 2012, apart from introducing eleven centers for research and extension in the spirit of Vision 2020 document of HPU, it was also decided to establish seven more academic chairs - that of S Bhatnagar for science education and research, Shobha Singh for visual Arts, J C Bose in life sciences, Baba Bhalku Ram for tourism, transport and hospitality, Sri Aurbindo for Indian philosophy and thoughts, Planning Commission and Reserve Bank of India chairs.

HPU announces two more chairs of Rajiv Gandhi and Panchayati Raj studies

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