Women’s college angry at getting insufficient supplies

Two new universities approved for Rawalpindi district

RAWALPINDI: Even as the government has approved as much as Rs500 million each for two universities in the city, existing educational institutions have been left frustrated at not being provided with the equipment they had asked for.

The Government Postgraduate College for Women in Rawalpindi, whose status of a university was recently approved by the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and substantial funds were allocated for it in the provincial budget, has been left fuming.

The soon-to-become-university had purchased equipment worth Rs15 million — half of the Rs30 million grant which was recently released by the provincial government.

The college had sought 48 computers with medium components, including eight gigabytes of ram (random access memory) through the purchase committee under the Directorate of colleges.

However, college officials say they were provided with an incomplete order with inferior parts.

Officials said that of the computers requested, they only received 12 computers and had only 4GB of ram installed.

Further, only 50 of the requested 150 computer tables and chairs were supplied to the university.

Angry at not being provided what they had asked for or paid for, the college’s principal — who is also tipped to be the new university’s first vice-chancellor, refused to receive the consignment.

Furthermore, officials complained that the necessary laboratory equipment for botany, zoology, chemistry, and physics labs was not even supplied.

A technical committee of the college certified that the equipment provided was of poor quality and did not meet the listed specifications.

Government Postgraduate College for Women Principal Dr Aalia Imam confirmed The Express Tribune that she had turned away the equipment because of its poor quality.

She added that the relevant officials will look into the Rs30 million released for this purpose. Similarly, the Murree Government College for Girls Principal Dr Kaneez Fatima has also refused to receive 50 sub-standard chairs instead of the 150 they had demanded.

She echoed Dr Imam’s sentiments that they had received an insufficient number of chairs and that too of poor quality.

New universities in Pindi

Following the announcement made by Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar during his visit to the city in April, the provincial government in its budget outlined for 2019-20 has allocated Rs500 million each for the two new universities which will be built in Rawalpindi.

The Kohsar University in Murree and a university in Chakwal district are expected to become operational from September

Similarly, after being granted the status of a university, the Government Postgraduate College for Women in Satellite Town is expected to start taking admissions for its first batch as a university from next month. Around 7,000 admission applications are expected in the newly-formed university.

After the addition of new universities, the number of universities in district Rawalpindi will increase to five.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2019.