Students’ protest over PTA funds continues

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 20

Members of the Punjab Students’ Union (PSU) continued their protest over PTA funds on the fourth day at Government Rajindra College on Friday.

The students gathered outside the college principal’s office and raised slogans against the government and college authorities.

The protesting students demanded that PTA funds for BC as well as general category students must be waived.

Sangeeta Rani, president of the PSU, said, “After our concerted efforts and series of protests, the college authorities have taken a decision that eligible candidates can apply and avail of the scholarship money to pay their fees. Now, we want that the authorities must waive PTA fund for general and BC category students. We will intensify our protest if the authorities did not give in to our demands.”

On the other hand, the college authorities expressed their helplessness as there are many guest faculty members who are from the PTA fund.

Satveer Singh, principal of Government Rajindra College, said, “Paying the guest faculty members is the biggest challenge we are facing now. If funds are not collected as per the stipulated guidelines, it would be really difficult to manage affairs. Moreover, we are not sure when the eligible SC students will get the scholarship money and when are they going to transfer the same to us.”

Maximum takers for BCom and BSc (non-medical)

A majority of the students had vied to get admissions in BCom and BSc (non-medical) courses at Government Rajindra College this year. As many as 635 admission aspirants had applied for 120 seats in BCom and 412 applications were received for 120 seats in BSc (non-medical).

The college has also started BCom (honours) from this year. There are 60 seats for the course and eligible candidates can apply till July 22.

Apart from this, there are 10 per cent seats for admissions aspirants who have studied from schools in rural areas for at least five years.

BA (honours in economics) has been the least sought after course this year as 67 applications have been received against 44 seats and names of 26 candidates have been cleared for the admission.