Chandigarh: PUTA gears up for three-corner contest
While incumbent president AS Naura has the backing of Keshav Malhotra, who has been elected unopposed as an executive member, Goyal is backed by the Navdeep Goyal group
The Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) will see a three-cornered contest for their annual polls which will be held on September 2. The incumbent president, AS Naura of biochemistry department, will be facing off again with Ashok Kumar of Hindi department, however this time a third candidate Parveen Goyal will also be in the fray.
While Naura has the backing of Keshav Malhotra, who has been elected unopposed as an executive member, Goyal is backed by the Navdeep Goyal group. He however is not in contention this time and has passed on the baton to new faces from the group. Ashok Kumar is backed by the Sudhir Mehra group, which had contested the last elections under the name Teachers Voice United Forum, but had been unable to secure the president and general secretary seat. Mehra will be contesting as an executive member this time.
Speaking about whether he can get elected for a third consecutive term, Naura said that they had worked throughout for the betterment of teachers and the release of arrears for the teachers and numerous career advancement scheme (CAS) promotions done under them were proof of this. They will contest with the same panel as last year, with the exception of Tanzeer Kaur for the post of joint secretary.
The other factions however said that not all teachers are happy with the work under the current leadership, and there is a sense that PUTA is too pro-administration in their views and recent working. This year’s new face for the president post, Parveen Goyal of University Institute of Engineering and Technology said that he will focus on the retirement age enhancement issue for all teachers and to resolve pension issues for the teachers.
