Aided-Colleges Managements decide not to call govt nominee in managing committees

Jalandhar/Amritsar, December 24, 2021: The Office-Bearers of Non-Govt. Colleges Managements Federation of Punjab and Chandigarh (NGCMF) today took a strong exception to the ‘unnecessary interference’ of the state government’s higher education department in the working of the aided colleges. They decided in principle not to call the government nominees in the meeting of Managing Committees as proposed by the department.
“The new proposals are highly condemnable and the decisions are being announced by the DPI and Education Department without any consultation with the stakeholders, which are the managements of these colleges”, said NGCMF. It added that the private aided colleges are acting as extended arm of the state government imparting the education to the more than 80 per cent students of the state.
It further said that in no case an appointee who is much junior in status shall be tolerated with voting rights and veto powers. The OB members opined that already three government agencies audit the accounts of the colleges besides their own internal as well as external audit by the qualified chartered accountants (CAs).  
The OB stated that they do not want any confrontation with the authorities of the higher education but if need be they would not shy to take extreme steps including closure of the colleges and responsibility for the loss of education of the students would lie with the department of higher education.
The management federation added that if the secretary, higher education and DPI department is hell bent to recast the procedure of selection, it must issue the appointments and bear the salaries and the retrial benefits of the teachers of the colleges.
 While demanding timely release of pending grants from DPI, they said that the government is contributing only 95 per cent of the deficit of the salary grants and not total budgetary provisions of the colleges. They also sought immediate release of the pending Post Matric Scholarships amounts of the colleges for SC students in one installment and restoration of 95 per cent grant-in-aid scheme as presently the government is contributing only 75 per cent of the salary grants of aided posts.
 The members proposed to seek time from Chief Minister of Punjab to apprise him about the concerns of the private aided colleges and might also meet Minister for Higher Education Pargat Singh in this regard.
Federation’s Senior Vice President Balbir Kaur, Ramesh Kumar Kaura, General Secretary SM Sharma, Finance Secretary Rakesh Kumar Dhir, Advisor Ravinder Joshi, Principal Dr. Mehal Singh, Principal Dr. SK Arora, Principal GS Samra, Principal Dr. Khshwinder Kumar, Dr Tarsem Singh, Dr.Gurnam Singh, Rajiv Jain, GS Randhawa took part in the meeting.