M A I N   N E W S

No retiral benefits through treasury
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 2
The Punjab Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, today, ruled out grant of pensionary benefits to the staff of government-aided private colleges in Punjab through the government Treasury while admitting a delay on the part of the Higher Education Department in expediting a formal notification.

Reacting to the story published in The Tribune yesterday, he added: “We are committed to giving them pensionary benefits at par with the Punjab Government employees only through the General Provident Fund. However, if the teachers still want to go ahead with their strike, I can do little.”

Though non-committal on a specific date for the implementation of the scheme, Capt Kanwaljit Singh said the process of handing down the benefits of the scheme would begin in about a week’s time.

A detailed press note about the pension-cum-gratuity scheme, issued by the official spokesperson said absolutely nothing on the only issue troubling teachers — mode of payment to be adopted.

Teachers of the 140 colleges decided to protest against government inaction with regard to the scheme and vociferously shot down the proposal of payment by the private managements of the colleges.

They have taken the plea that since colleges are unable to pay salaries to staff, expecting them to pay for the scheme would be preposterous. The teachers had in 1990 turned down the proposal of payment through college managements which the government has proposed again.

Speaking from Jalandhar where a meeting of the joint committee of managements, principals and teachers of private colleges was held today, the PCCTU, General Secretary, Mr Jaspal Singh Randhawa, said it was unanimously resolved that all teaching work by adhoc staff and of self-financing courses would be suspended. Besides, no examinations would be held in these colleges.

“The joint action committee of the Managements Federation of Punjab and Chandigarh, Principals’ Federation of Punjab and Chandigarh as well as the PCCTU would meet at Guru Nanak College, Doraha, on December 9 and decide the future course of action. Also, the three along with the non-teaching staff would organise a protest rally on December 10 in Chandigarh,” he added.

Meanwhile, the press note added government had conveyed to the Department of Higher Education that it would give pensionary benefits with effect from April 24, 1999, to employees of the government-aided private colleges on the same rates and conditions as are applicable to the Punjab Government employees”.

The minister said benefits would be paid out of the corpus available under their Contributory Fund, the existing amount sufficient to meet expenses up to March 2005.

Meanwhile, the Education Department has been asked to formulate a scheme concurrently to ensure the corpus fund in regularly augmented.

It added that the formulation of the corpus had nothing to do with the notification by the department. 

Tandon faces Akali leaders’ wrath
Discrimination in disbursal of grants alleged
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 2
The Punjab Local Bodies Minister, Mr Balramji Dass Tandon, had to face the wrath of Akali leaders and residents who alleged favouritism in the disbursal of grants during his first sangat darshan programme at grain market here today.

The situation turned tense as a group of senior Akali leaders led by the president of the district unit of the SAD, Mr Partap Singh, accused the district BJP chief, Mr Nawal Kamboh, who was sitting beside Mr Tandon, of changing the list of proposed grants finalised last night by the two parties. He alleged that Mr Kamboh was trying to divert funds to pleased local BJP leaders by cutting the proposed grants demanded by the Akalis.

“We are not beggars. Why are the BJP leaders trying to sideline us? We fail to understand the motive behind the move to curtail the grants. How will we face people to whom we have said remaining development works would be completed after the release of grants”, a senior Akali leader asked.

“I have already conveyed my displeasure to Mr Kamboh over the unilateral cut in grant to the Vishvakarma Mandir from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50,000. What right does the BJP leadership have to amend the list which was prepared after long deliberations. We are not going to accept such kind of humiliation at the hands of the alliance partner”, Mr Partap Singh said.

He asked Mr Kamboh to present the original list of grants before the Local Bodies Minister. Mr Kamboh said all mutually-approved proposals would get grants as per the original list submitted to the district administration last night.

After this, the situation went out of control for a while, when residents of Kot Baba Deep Singh Nagar started shouting anti-government slogans in front of the minister for sanctioning Rs 40,000 for the construction of Janj Ghar in the gurdwara against the assured sum of Rs 2 lakh by SAD-BJP leaders. The Chairman of the Local Improvement Trust, Mr Sarabjeet Singh Makkar, tried to pacify the residents and Mr Tandon was forced to sanction Rs 1 lakh.

The residents of Sawan Nagar, Tobri Mohalla, Prithvi Nagar and Navnirman Janta Colony also protested against the failure of the authorities to sanction grants for various development works. “We were assured by Mr Kamboh that Rs 8 lakh will be released for carrying out development works, but the name of our colonies is missing in the final list”, Capt Baldev Singh, president of Navnirman Janta Colony, alleged.

Later talking to mediapersons, Mr Tandon said the government had set up a committee headed by the Chief Secretary to advise on alternative arrangements for the collection of revenue after the abolition of octroi “The committee will scrutinise the Shaker Committee report on the abolition of octroi and suggest means to compensate the loss to the municipal corporations and committees. The committee will submit its final report within 15 days”, he said.