Chandigarh, Aug. 29 -- Haryana is set to put forth the proposal for seeking affiliation of its colleges from Panjab University during the Northern Zonal Council (NZC) meeting to be held on September 11 in Surajkund, Haryana. The meeting will be chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah in which lieutenant governors, and chief secretaries of eight states and Union Territories (UT) will be present. A government spokesperson said NZC comprises Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan, UT Chandigarh, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The proposal is listed in the agenda for the meeting. The proposal was made also made two years ago but Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann had outrightly rejected it. Haryana had first raised this demand in 2019, seeking the affiliation of its colleges with PU. On July 9, 2022, during the NZC meeting in Jaipur, Haryana had reiterated the demand strongly, but Punjab opposed it. In recent years, PU has been grappling with a severe financial crisis. During this period, Haryana offered financial assistance to the university, but on the condition that its colleges be affiliated with PU. In the September 2023, during the NZC meeting in Amritsar, Union home minister had said that PU should consider granting affiliation to colleges in neighbouring Haryana districts. Chairing that meeting, Shah had advised both states to sit together and resolve the matter amicably. While putting forward the proposal, then Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said, "Our demand is in the interest of students' welfare. Colleges in Panchkula, Ambala,and Yamunanagar should be given the option of affiliation with PU." Khattar had pointed out that Haryana colleges were earlier affiliated with PU under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, but this arrangement was ended through a ministry of home affairs notification on November 1, 1973. "Given this history, we believe colleges in these three districts should be affiliated with PU once again," he said. Rejecting the proposal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann had asserted, "The university has deep emotional and cultural ties with the people of Punjab. After Partition, it shifted from Lahore to Hoshiarpur in Punjab and then to Chandigarh, our capital. The stand of the Punjab government is clear - there should be no change in PU's status. It is our university and we will continue to support and fund it in the future." Mann further argued that Punjab had been the primary supporter and nurturer of PU for the last 50 years, while questioning why Haryana now wanted affiliation when its colleges had been associated with Kurukshetra University, an A+ NAAC-accredited institution for five decades. More recently, Haryana suggested that if affiliation for the entire state was not possible, at least colleges in Panchkula, Ambala, and Yamunanagar should be considered. A joint meeting of the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana, the Chandigarh administration, and PU officials scheduled for July 13, 2025, did not take place, and another meeting proposed for August 21 was also postponed. The issue will now be placed directly before Amit Shah. The agenda also includes a review of crimes against women and children, the lidar-based master plan for Chandigarh, and the progress of several central government schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, Poshan Abhiyaan, and the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS). Discussions will also assess police response times after crimes are reported. The action taken report will detail the number of food samples collected by the Chandigarh administration in the past year, how many passed or failed quality tests, the expenditure on testing, and future plans to enhance food-testing laboratory capacities....