New Delhi: Delhi University (DU) is one of the largest and oldest central university of the country and the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister, Kapil Sibal, in lieu of paradigm reforms in the education sector is keen to extend that status to Panjab University (PU) in Chandigarh as well, but, the Punjab government became a hurdle in the move.

Where most of the institutes are affiliates, with regulated fees and salaries accounting for 80 per cent of their budgets, the minister referred to PU while proposing a system of disaffiliation of institutes from state universities to grant full academic and financial autonomy to them.

"In the garb of setting the exams and conducting them for their affiliates, the state universities mint money. So it becomes obvious that the state governments would like to continue with the system otherwise they have to bear the financial burden to some extent," Sibal argued, while admitting that the affiliated professional colleges in particular left much to be desired in terms of quality of education imparted.

Sibal is now keen on proposing a system of disaffiliation where the responsibility of conducting the exams would befall upon it while the universities would just be meant for research work, which is their primary job.

Commenting on such scenario, Sibal said, "The actual implementation should come from the states, we can only propose."

Technically speaking, PU is an inter-state body corporate and not a state university, so, Sibal's allegations upon the Punjab government for not accepting the central status because the state would lose out on the revenue generated from PU through its affiliates holds no firm ground.

The budget of PU originally comprised of 40% share from both Punjab and Haryana while the rest comes from the home ministry through the UT of Chandigarh.

But Punjab has been contributing only 10% (Rs.16 crore per annum) of the expected contribution to PU to pay for its 175 affiliated colleges.

According to the sources, there is a calculation already predefined by Punjab. The government would actually gain from the disaffiliation saving the 16 crore amount as Haryana did when it opted for disaffiliation of its colleges from PU and stopped paying 40 per cent of PU's budget it was supposed to.

The primary objection by the Punjab government for the conversion stands political as it weakens Punjab's claim over Chandigarh.

However, the fact, that the centre is keen to facilitate PU was clear from Sibal's remarks.

As far as the say of Punjab colleges go, they also comply with the decision of the Punjab government and would not like to let PU go off as the varsity lends credibility to their degrees.

The head of a PU affiliated college in Punjab says that, "We share an organic bond with the university. We pay for its recognition while PU in return regulates our fee structure and faculty position."

As for the HRD ministry, it wants Punjab to either fulfill its financial obligation of 40 per cent of the budget towards PU or give up its claim on it.