TOBA TEK SINGH: Governor Chaudhry Sarwar says a committee will meet him in his office next week to discuss the bottlenecks in the upgrade of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad’s Toba Tek Singh sub-campus to an independent varsity for provision of quality higher education to local students.

The governor announced this on Tuesday night in his speech here, again pledging that the Toba sub-campus would be elevated to the status of Toba Tek Singh university.

As chancellor of all universities of Punjab, the governor had announced on March 5, 2019 that the UAF’s T T Singh sub-campus would be made a fully-fledged varsity, but it could not be done in the two years.

However, in the 2021-22 proposed budget presented in the Punjab Assembly, the provincial finance minister, on the recommendation of PTI provincial women development minister Begum Ashifa Fitayana and her husband MNA Riaz Fitayana, announced that a university will be established at Kamalia, ignoring the governor’s pledge with regard to the Toba UAF campus.

In a press release issued by UAF on Wednesday, governor also said that solar energy and potable water plants would be installed in all universities of the province on priority.

He said that University of California Davis and the UAF had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate in research and development, technology, innovation and best practices to help increase per acre yield and overall quality of local agricultural produce.

He said that in the past, a USAID-funded project was functioning in the UAF which was stalled and now efforts were being made to revive it with the help of US congress members.

He showed his concern over reduction in the cotton production from 15 million tonnes to 6.5 million tonnes, adding the government was committed to address the problems of the farming community and increase agricultural production for poverty alleviation in the country.

UAF pro-VC Dr Anas Sarwar Qureshi, Planning and Development Director Irfan Abbas, sub campus Principal Dr Nisar Ahmad also spoke.

MAN DIES: A man died while six others were injured in a collision between a rickshaw and two motorcycles on Sargodha Road, Jhang on Wednesday.

As per Rescue 1122, the deceased was identified as Zafar Iqbal (40). The injured persons were shifted to the district headquarters hospital.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2021