Varanasi, May 8 Noted environmental science expert Dhirendra Pal Singh, who assumed the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Thursday, has said that he would initiate process to begin a course in ‘peace education’ in the university, in association with UNESCO.
Addressing mediapersons after taking charge of his new assignment, Singh said that efforts will be made to set up an Institute for Sustainable Development at the BHU with help of UNO and UNESCO to mark the International Decade on Sustainable Development (2005-2014).
Singh, a native of Etah, is the 24th V-C of the BHU that was founded in 1916 by visionary Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.
He had earlier served as the V-C of the Dr Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh.
The new V-C assured that lack of funds will not impede the functioning of BHU’S Ganga Laboratory, which has been facing monetary problems for the last decade.
Singh, however, remained non-committal on revival of elected students union body at the BHU — the Asia’s biggest university where students union was scrapped in 1997 following violence during polls.
On the issue of dearth of qualified coaches at the university, in spite of the fact that the campus boasts of considerable sports infrastructure, Singh said, “I will urgently address the issue to ensure that during the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games talented students of the can take part.”
