WHAT'S IN A CFTI-TAG? FOR PEC CHANDIGARH, SURVIVAL

In Punjab Engineering College's 60-year effort to be designated a "central institution", a tale of neglect and apathy. Once a top-notch technical institution, it is now short of teachers, hostels, labs.

- Atul Krishna

The Punjab Engineering College's proposal for a Centrally-Funded Technical Institution (CFTI) tag-submitted in December 2022 was its twelfth. such attempt since the 1960s. Before December 2022, it had tried in 2018 when the proposal had even made it to the education ministry but nothing came of it.

Punjab Engineering College (PEC) Chandigarh is the eleventh oldest technical institution in the country and has a lot riding on this designation. It is currently under the Chandigarh administration which, in turn, is under the ministry of home affairs.

Union territories, unlike the states, have scant funds and the institution gets a "meagre" portion of this. PEC Chandigarh, once one of the most prestigious institutions for technical education in the country, is hobbled by fund shortages, inadequate and crumbling infrastructure, and a lack of permanent faculty. By aiming for the CFTI tag, the institute has its eyes on a larger funding pool and a break from the bureaucratic red-tape that comes with union territories.

Officials said that the institute is currently treated like a department of the home ministry rather than as an educational institution.

Home ministry and funds

Funds travel a highly circuitous route to PEC Chandigarh, and what makes it through that squeeze is a fraction of what a CFTI gets.