JAC decides to hold state rally on January 29, 2015 at Chandigarh or Jalandhar

Jalandhar, December 22, 2014: A meeting of the joint action committee of Principal Federation, Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union and Punjab and Chandigarh College Non-Teaching Employees Union held at Chandigarh on December 20. A joint action committee meeting was held to chalk out the future action plan jointly to save the Higher Education in Punjab. The JAC took serious note of unprecedented delay of 15 months in release of Grant in aid to 136 aided colleges of Punjab. The employees are facing serious financial hardships since May 2013. Despite repeated requests and appeals the Higher Education Minister as well as Officials of the Higher education Department paid no heed hence we were compelled by the circumstances to launch a joint agitation. In its initial action program the JAC boycotted of Examinations of three universities of Punjab viz Panjab University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University on December 15 and 19. According to information made available to cityairnews.com the employees of the aided colleges held campus dharnas on December 15 and 19. A massive rally was held at Desh Bhagat Hall Jalandar followed by a procession on December 15. A massive rally consisting of around  employees was held at Amritsar.

Because of our joint efforts the Punjab Government had to release two quarters grant (second quarter to 92 colleges and third quarter to 110 colleges) these initiatives are welcome but not sufficient to meet our expectations because we are still lacking behind in the financial year of 2013-14. The disbursed grants were not given to all 136 aided colleges. The fourth and final quarter grant to 136 colleges is still awaited. The four quarters of financial year 2014-15 is also still awaited. The JAC also demanded the withdrawal of letter issued by DCFA DPI colleges Punjab by which our Medical Allowance and HRA was reduced at old pre-revised scales. Whereas, the employees of aided colleges have been drawing the revised HRA and Medical Allowance since September 2009. The arrears of  pay revision of non-teaching staff are still awaited.

The JAC also decided to start an awareness campaign amongst the students and society against the anti higher education bias of the Punjab Govt. The JAC will publish banners to aware the students regarding the dangers of becoming the higher education more costly if the present policies continue. The joint action committee decided to hold a massive rally on January 9, 2015 in Patiala the home town of Higher Education Minister. The second rally will be held on January 20 at Ludhiana. The state rally will be held on January 29 at Chandigarh or Jalandhar.

The meeting was attended by Principals namely Gurdip Sharma, B B Sharma, Swarnjit Singh, Sarita Verma, J S Sidhu,M P Singh  and Naresh Dhiman representatives of PCCTU Kuldip Singh, Jagwant Singh and Avtar Singh representatives of non teaching employees namely M L Khullar, Ajaysingh Gupta,Harinder Singh, Jagdeep Singh and Bhupinder Thakur. Other dignitaries was Ravinder Joshi.

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